To improve the performance of their processors, manufacturers have been releasing more multi-core machines. Multiple cores allow PCs to run multiple processes at the same time with greater ease, increasing your performance when multitasking or under the demands of powerful apps and programs. Every application produces its threads. When a computer multi-tasks, because a single-core processor can manage one thread at a time, the system must move between the threads quickly to process the data.
The advantage of having several cores is that each core can handle a different data thread simultaneously, allowing for a much quicker transfer of data at any given time. A high clock speed means faster processor.
For instance, a quad-core processor may support a clock speed of 3. So, if you have a single-threaded program, the dual-core processor is indeed more efficient. When multiple cores work concurrently on instructions, at a lower rate than the single-core, they achieve an immeasurable processing rate. Multi-core processors produce high-performance computing HPC. HPC will take complex computations and break them into smaller pieces.
Using software, each piece of the computation can then be solved by multiple CPU cores. Think of it as taking a supercomputer and breaking it down into smaller, more manageable building blocks that can then be used to solve complex scientific problems. HPC can therefore enable users to manage difficult tasks at relatively lower energy, which is a significant factor in devices like laptops, mobile phones or laptop, which run on batteries.
This kind of energy saving — and ultimately cost saving — is one way in which your business could benefit. If your business deals with virtualisation, databases and the cloud then multi-core processors could also be for you. Most computer graphic rendering software, for instance, needs a rendering engine to show what occurs in an animation. Hyper-threading attempted to make up for that.
While the operating system sees two CPUs for each core, the actual CPU hardware only has a single set of execution resources for each core. The CPU pretends it has more cores than it does, and it uses its own logic to speed up program execution.
Hyper-threading allows the two logical CPU cores to share physical execution resources. This can speed things up somewhat—if one virtual CPU is stalled and waiting, the other virtual CPU can borrow its execution resources.
Your dual-core CPU with hyper-threading appears as four cores to your operating system, while your quad-core CPU with hyper-threading appears as eight cores. Hyper-threading is no substitute for additional cores, but a dual-core CPU with hyper-threading should perform better than a dual-core CPU without hyper-threading.
Originally, CPUs had a single core. That meant the physical CPU had a single central processing unit on it. A CPU with two cores, for example, could run two different processes at the same time. This speeds up your system, because your computer can do multiple things at once. Unlike hyper-threading, there are no tricks here — a dual-core CPU literally has two central processing units on the CPU chip. This helps dramatically improve performance while keeping the physical CPU unit small so it fits in a single socket.
Here, for example, you can see that this system has one actual CPU socket and four cores. Hyperthreading makes each core look like two CPUs to the operating system, so it shows 8 logical processors. Most computers only have a single CPU.
Before hyper-threading and multi-core CPUs came around, people attempted to add additional processing power to computers by adding additional CPUs. This requires a motherboard with multiple CPU sockets. Even a high-powered gaming desktop with multiple graphics cards will generally only have a single CPU.
The more CPUs or cores a computer has, the more things it can do at once, helping improve performance on most tasks. Intel CPUs also feature hyper-threading, which is kind of a bonus. Browse All iPhone Articles Browse All Mac Articles Do I need one? Browse All Android Articles Browse All Smart Home Articles Customize the Taskbar in Windows Browse All Microsoft Office Articles What Is svchost. Save Article. Improve Article.
Like Article. Next Difference between Fedora and Debian. Recommended Articles. Article Contributed By :. Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert.
Writing code in comment? Please use ide.
0コメント