Re: Idle question about multi-core processors

[Erik Wikström <erik-wikstrom@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2006-12-01 00:10, walt wrote:
> [I confess, I'm not sure if this question is off-topic or not.]
>
> I just read this blurb in an e-newsletter:
>
> Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) launched a motherboard with four cores
> on Thursday, targeting gaming enthusiasts in an effort to keep pace with
> the release of quad-core chips by rival Intel Corp.

Is it not a mobo with two sockets, allowing for 4 cores (2 x dual-core). 
If that's the case it might make some sense from a gamer point of view 
now that AMD is trying to make device-manufacturers plug their products 
straight into the bus, which might be attractive for GPUs.

> Well, I always read that the whole point of expensive graphics boards
> is to take the workload off of the CPU.  And now, suddenly, the trend
> is to provide more CPU's to attract the gamers?  Something here doesn't
> add up.

You are quite right, CPU is not the most important part when gaming, the 
GU is still the bottleneck.

> In any case, it looks to me like the mass-market may be supporting SMP
> mobo's much sooner than I suspected.  And, I suspect that DragonFly may
> provide much better performance on SMP hardware than many other OS's.

I thought dual-core was SMP, was that wrong of me?

--
Erik Wikström