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Intel And AMD's Dual-Core CPUs Investigated
Hack Jandy writes "Anandtech has a bunch of insider information concerning Intel and AMD's move to dual-core CPUs. The article has lots of great information on how the move to dual-core processors affects modern computing - in particular, Anand sees more promise in multiple CPU cores that perform different operations, rather than just stamping two identical cores on the same processor like AMD and Intel are doing now."
Moving processing out into special purpose processers, and then back into the main one again as Moore's Law takes effect has been known about since the term the wheel of reincarnation was coined back in 1968.
Well, if you tried working on SMP machine it's quite a bit different feeling really. You can't quantify it but it flows smoother. Which is not too surprising IMHO. I wished sub-$150 SMP motherboards for AthlonXP become commonplace (even if now it's a bit too late, but maybe socket754 ones). As for single CPU at higher clock speed, well 2x mainstream frequency CPUs are often simply not available, even if they are, they cost much, much more than 2x.
Everyone multitasks nowadays anyway... most everyone has a firewall, a virus scanner and an instant messanger system and/or email program running on their desktop at all times, no? Laptop users usually have several applets running on top of these as well.
Beyond those basics, most ppl I know that use a computer have a great deal more running in the background.
The idea that "Joe Average" doesn't multitask might have been true at one point, but it isn't anymore.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth