Dual Core __ A Basic Explanation
Without dual core you have only one
computer running which means you can only do one thing at any one
instant. You
may think you are multi-tasking but in reality you work on one program
for a
few cycles then another one then back to the first one and so
on...
With Dual
Core technology IF your
program uses SMP (symmetrical multi processes) then you can be working
on more
than one thing at a time within one program. This is called
Multi-Threading. An
example of this is Adobe Photo Shop, a photo editing program which
requires
lots of power to run well. SMP programs are usually the big expensive
programs
that do lots of things concurrently. Most of us don't use them.
By now you
are thinking "Dual Core won't
help me very much." Wrong!
You
don't have to have the benefits of SMP programs to reap the benefits of
Dual
Core. Lets say your surfing the net doing research for a document you
are
writing and you have music playing in the background. Then you remember
you
wanted to do a Virus or Spyware scan of your hard disk today so you
start your
scanner. You have probably hit a wall by now and everything slows to a
crawl.
Sound familiar?
Dual Core to the rescue. If you have
dual core you have two CPUs in one computer. With them you should have
more
memory as well because each CPU will need some for the programs it is
working
on. You multi-task even if you are only surfing the web. Windows has
many, many
tasks running at the same time usually. With Dual Core they can be done
sooner
which speeds up your system or many more things can be done
concurrently
without breaking up or slowing down. When music or video starts to
breakup
because of too much being multi-tasked in a single CPU it get
frustrating. Dual
Cores help considerably.
Today a Dual Core system is quickly
becoming the standard for Personal Computers. They have come down in
price
considerably from only a few months ago and are not much more than
similar
single core system. C&C sells a complete Dual Core system for under
$700 and an upgrade tower
for $399 so you can see
Dual Core may be
in your near future.
This
info page brought to you by:
Christian Mayer
C&C Computers
in Hendersonville, NC