Re: Hyper Threaded Pentium 4

[Robert L. Cochran]

I'm new to the CPU-level stuff and don't have much background in them. So some of the terms are new for me. Let me get really basic: why would you want multiple processors on a motherboard as opposed to a single fast processor? I take it that the Xeon line is for multiple CPU motherboards -- you don't just run one Xeon, am I right? What does it mean, to be 'cpu cache bound'?

Do your comments also mean the Red Hat kernel won't need testing on the new Hyper Threaded P4s?

Thanks

Bob Cochran

Samuel Flory wrote:

Red Hat has support this since one of the 7.2 kernel updates. This is old hat on the current crop of Xeon (aka P4 Xeon). Linux treats them as multiple cpus. Don't assume that this will make your system faster. If you tend to only one process active at a time then it will slow things down. It's also really bad if you are cpu cache bound.