At 04:39 PM 2/9/2007, you wrote:
>What is the advantage of having dual processors instead of a single
>processor?
Dual processors, and now dual core, which you can think of as two
processors in one package, will give you a faster multitasking
experience. Which means, you can run more things simultaneously
without taking a performance hit. No poorly coded, or misbehaving
application can bring your computer to a halt because the other
processor is available to allow you to shut it down, or to solve the problem.
There is also a hair trigger feeling to working with multi processor
workstations that can be addictive. Dual processors can make
applications run much faster if the operating system supports multi
processors, ( Windows NT, 2000, XP PRO all support SMP = Symmetric
Multi Processors ), and if the application is written to support
SMP..... few are. Typically high end professional applications do.
Things like Adobe Photo Shop, Adobe Premier, Auto CAD, any
professional application that requires a lot of number crunching.
Games might be able to benefit from SMP but non are written for it
yet. However, now that dual and even Quad Core have entered the
desktop market you can expect to see many, many more applications
written to support dual or multi core processors.
Two 3 Ghz processors do not deliver 6 Ghz, or even 4 Ghz performance.
You can not run faster then the speed of the processors = 3Ghz.
However, as a rule of thumb you can figure in result, using supported
programs, about 75 per cent of the speed of the combined processors
may be achieved. It all depends on the operating system and the
programs coding. Higher results are available in other operating
systems, such as Unix.
To give you an example of what can be done, I use a program called
TMPgEnc to encode video. It fully supports SMP running on XP PRO SP2.
I am using a Dual Xeon 3.06 Ghz 533 FSB computer.If I encode the same
video file, on the dual Xeon, and on a P4 3.4 GHZ 800 FSB, the dual
Xeon takes about 30 minutes while the single P4 takes about 50 minutes.
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