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Thread ID: 21757 2002-07-03 08:02:00 Twin CPUs dum dugie (432) Press F1
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59409 2002-07-03 08:02:00 Can someone explain breifly how twin CPUs work in a PC. Is the load shared equally or do the carry out specific tasks?
If they operate as individuals how do they relate to the RAM.
A bit heavy I know but I was just wondering..........
dumdugie
dum dugie (432)
59410 2002-07-03 09:04:00 The CPUs can act as load sharing or for individal tasks depending if you are using SMP or AMP. Have a look at:

nscp.upenn.edu

John
JohnD (509)
59411 2002-07-03 13:37:00 from what i have read its really more useful in server type situations cpus are so cheap these days it has become economic to have dual motherboards but the increase in speed isnt reaaly significant in fact it can be slower in some cases getting the 2 cpus to work in parrallel can cause problems kiwibeat (304)
59412 2002-07-03 21:33:00 I have a couple of SMP systems and find them excellent. For most things, they are much smoother to use (exception: heavy games that don't support SMP) - especially when you are running multiple applications. The Operating System shares the load across the CPU's, and if one application is hitting a CPU hard, the other CPU(s) are still able to respond to you.

How well it works for you will depend on your requirements. If you mostly play games, SMP will probably not help and may hinder (Quake handles SMP great). If you mostly only use one application at a time, SMP is still nice, but not as good as a single faster CPU. If you run mutiple apps or have a few background services running, SMP is great.

Note that you need an SMP Operating System - WinNT4, Win2K, WinXP-Pro all handle 2 CPU's. Linux & *BSD will handle multiple CPU's. Win9x/ME and XP-Home can only handle a single CPU.

When I finally get to replace my aged 233mmx system, it will still be a single CPU machine because I need a Win9x system for a few things. For everything else, SMP offers great performance at a good price.
Your Mileage May Vary.
Linatux (828)
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