Dual Core Intel Processors Sooner Than Expected

Hack Jandy writes "AnandTech reports that Intel's Smithfield processors are going to get here sooner than they originally predicted; most likely within the next few months. Apparently, the Intel roadmaps reveal that the launch dates for next generation desktop chipsets, 2MB L2 Prescotts and Dual Core Smithfield processors (operating at 3.2GHz per core) are almost upon us - way ahead of the original Q4'05 roadmap estimates. Hopefully, that means Intel will actually start shipping the new technology instead of waiting four months after the announcement for retail products."

Re:Bleh...

[DrLZRDMN]

RTFA
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx? i=2329&p=4

No, he means Nocona cores.

[PornMaster]

Intel added the x86-64 instructions to the Xeon line and called it EM64T.

Read up!

http://www.intel.com/technology/64bitextensions/ [intel.com]

Re:Programs

[Unknown Lamer]

ffmpeg/libavcodec takes advantage of SMP now so I can encode videos almost twice as fast as before. Quake III kind of uses it, not very much to be noticeable.

I also run more than one program at a time so the entire system is faster.

Two dual core processors would rock hard (when my AthlonMP 2800+ system stop being usable I'm going to get dual dua-core Opterons, or PPC64s if they exist).

Re:Office use?

[cillasri]

Well, 15 seconds isn't too much time if you are using Windows. Windows networks are sluggish per se, and you won't benefit from dual core CPU. You won't benefit even from a 10Gigabit Ethernet trunk as Windows networking is very noisy.

Re:Bleh...

[AndroidCat]

It should be safe so long as the containment field doesn't fail.

Re:Programs

[X43B]

"or PPC64s if they exist"

Are you serious, the POWER4 and POWER5 IBM workstation/server chips have been out for years. If you want a consumer friendly version, try the 64 bit dual G5's from Apple. The G5's are not available dual core yet, but the IBM ones have been for quite some time already.

Re:my epiphany...

[Tim Browse]

The core work of most modern games is done on a single thread. A lot of games use a thread to read input, but that's about it.

Do you know of any examples of games (other than, I believe, Quake 3) that use threads to actually divide real work, as opposed to a minor scheduling convenience?

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

RAWR, no discussion of dual-core CPUs is complete w/out a mention of Herb Sutter's The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software [www.gotw.ca]!