'Multicore' processors are pretty new - older machines have always had an
enormous number of processors. 80 cores on a single chip would take up most of
the silicon wafer. (and will probably have a few defective cores and rather
interesting cooling problems)
Problems encountered by multiple processors include - how do you know that
another processor altered data? This is especially important when multiple
processors are using their 'cache memory'. So the processors need special
hardware to signal eachother.
So for question #1:
Shouldn't take long at all - Linux habitually handles '8-way' Opterons and way
back around 2003 the operating system structures were tweaked to allow some
ridiculous number of processors (which we're still skeptical of being met, but
strange things happen). The biggest job is adding support into the compiler
and the next biggest job is writing the assembly portions of the Linux kernel.
Of course some poor creature will have to study the documentation on the
candy-bar computer and figure out exactly how its features can be exploited by
the kernel.
for Question #2:
Microsoft will seriously struggle - there are numerous defects in the system
and we always have a good laugh when Microsoft talk about reliability, 'high
performance', and 'scalability'. WinDos cannot even handle time properly; in
contrast, UNIX was handling time even before DOS was out on the market
(allowing every user to have their own time zone - in fact any program running
can have its own time zone).
Apple's OSX is based on BSD, which will currently run on at least '8-way'
machines. I don't keep in touch with BSD developments so I don't know what
their current limit is.
Of course more cores doesn't mean a faster machine unless you do things in
parallel. It may be great for servers which do a lot of actual processing and
in astronomy for 'multibody' calculations (and in physics for 'Monte Carlo'
simulations of light scattering) but for most purposes it will just keep the
room that little bit warmer.
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