The next desktop computers and file servers you buy will likely feature dual-core technology. But you might want to hold off for the next breakthrough in microprocessing.
Dual core essentially offers two processor "cores" on one chip, almost doubling the computing performance of your equipment. This boost is achieved, not through a clock-speed increase in the microprocessor, but rather through an additional capability provided by another processing core.
A simple analogy may help to explain the principle. Think of single-core processing as a bank machine serving a long line of customers. In this case, the customer line represents application instructions waiting to be processed by the chip. Dual core would be like adding a second ABM to serve that line of customers.
Dual core was introduced en masse in 2006 and microchip maker Intel Corp. predicts that by the end of the year more than 85 per cent of the servers it sells will feature this technology.
"Our expectation is that by the end of next year, 100 per cent of the servers we sell will be dual core and more than 90 [per cent] of both desktops and mobile [systems] will be dual core or above," says Doug Cooper, general manager of Intel of Canada Ltd.
But while you're pondering your decision to take the dual-core leap, consider that quad-core technology is just around the corner. And it might be worth your while to wait just a bit longer before making your next business computing hardware investment.
It's necessary to understand how software works in order to fully appreciate the value of quad-core and future iterations of multicore microprocessing. Most business and personal software features threads -- concurrent and multiple processes within many existing applications that are designed to run parallel with one another. A single application executes a number of simultaneous threads.
For an even better understanding, try this experiment. While within your Windows operating environment, press the ALT, CTRL and DEL keys on your keyboard at the same time. You've just activated a menu of selections. Click your mouse on the button "Task Manager." Another menu appears. Click a tab called "Processes" and you'll see a list of application threads that are active on your system. "You could see 48 [or more] threads waiting in some way or doing something," explains Margaret Lewis, director of commercial solutions for microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices.
On a simple single-user machine, it's astronomical the number of threads that could be waiting to be processed or computed."
If you're running Windows XP, using Microsoft Outlook, running PowerPoint presentation software and an Excel spreadsheet, you might see more that 800 threads in the queue.
Applications and computing processes in a single-core system compete for a single time-sharing processing brain -- again, think of that automated banking machine analogy.
The more computer programs and operations you have running, the more active threads there are and the longer the wait for microprocessor time.
Now consider how much better your PC could perform if you were able to add a few more processing cores to the mix. Your system would be a lot faster and you could run a whole lot more simultaneous computing processes.
Multicore becomes an important technology when you consider that future applications are expected to be built with even more threads. Operating systems like Microsoft's current Windows XP and upcoming 64-bit Vista are designed to take advantage of multicore technology. Increasingly, software is being built with security features that provide scanning and monitoring of computer systems -- subprocesses that run continually and would significantly slow traditional single core systems.
