Date   : Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:41:21 +0100
From   : robert@... (Rob)
Subject: Units of memory, Was: Master Ethernet upgrade

On 29/07/2009, Rick Murray <rick@...> wrote:
> * - Azumi's "Atom" processor is "hyperthreading" as opposed, I presume
> to dual core. Does this mean, then, that there is only one actual
> processor core while the thing has lots of trickery and magic to make it
> look like two? If I Ctrl-Alt-Del I can pick a process and set its
> affinity to either CPU0 or CPU1 or both (I like how the window goes up
> to CPU31!). Running ProcessExplorer, it can show separate activity
> charts for each 'processor', which can vary from each other - yet all I
> am aware of on this CPU is "hyperthreading", not "dual core"...?

Check your BIOS ... I've got an early P4 that the bios allows you to
turn hyperthreading off and on.  Off, you get a single CPU that runs
at twice the speed.  On, you apparently get two processors ..  I've
never quite worked out which mode is best,apart from "single threaded"
applications which definitely run faster when HT is off, as they are
not limited to 50% of the total speed..

I've got a machine (Angua, if we're going to be referring to them by
name!) that physically has two P3-1GHz processors in it.  Cost me a
bomb to build when new, and seemed like it worked beautifully at the
time.  Nowaways, I found it too slow for me to run BeebEm on, even on
a clean install of Win2K.


Rob.