Intel Pentium Extreme Editions (Smithfield dual core XE)

[pcguideuser745]

Well, it seems as if Intel is going to release their dual core 'Smithfields' in Q2 of this year. According to THG and TheInq, the regular 800 series will have hyper-threading disabled, whereas the Extreme Editions will have hyper-threading enabled. Wow! That's 4 threads!!! What improvements do you think this will bring about?

Also, according to TheInq, AMD's dual core toledo will likely debut at 2.40GHz, and will be "fast, very very fast." However, are they only talking about when it works with multithreaded applications? I thought that for dual core processing to work, you had to have a multithreaded OS and application.

[PrntRhd]

Wait until Saphalline sees this one!
You still need the software applications to be written to take advantage of the dual core hyperthreading architecture.

[saphalline]

Cool! I want dual-core!! Maybe I'll make that my next major upgrade...

However, are they only talking about when it works with multithreaded applications? I thought that for dual core processing to work, you had to have a multithreaded OS and application.WinXP is a multithreaded OS, so no problems there. Win2k is the popular competitor, and that's multithreaded, too. My thoughts are that if you can afford a dual-core system, you should be able to afford an OS upgrade!

As for the performance benefits, yes, they will be somewhat limited to certain apps, but for the most part, dual-core will result in some large performance increases. All that needs to happen is for WinXP/2k to balance the workload of the two cores among all open applications. Since a dual-core CPU is essentially two cores coming from the same hardware port, I don't think this will take a lot of work.

[pcguideuser745]

It is still quite odd. The only applications to take advantage of Dual Core processors would be multithreaded applications. It doesn't work if you have a single threaded application and a multithreaded OS. They both have to be multithreaded in order to take advantage of the performance benefits. However, what is the projected performance increase with Intel's Smithfield XE processors with hyperthreading, versus AMD's regular dual core processor?

Also, where are all the multithreaded applications? Won't it be a year until multithreaded apps become more available?