"10,000 cores will not speed up a single threaded app"

Geomagick

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
1,265
0
76
Two cores is probably the limit of what is really useful on the desktop at the moment. Getting an X2 over a 'normal' 64 probably makes sense to most high performance users.

Although it is a pretty lame article it is a good point. The only thing I could think of using 10,000 cores for at the moment is BOINC, now that would be interesting.
 

Leper Messiah

Banned
Dec 13, 2004
7,973
8
0
Originally posted by: George Powell
Two cores is probably the limit of what is really useful on the desktop at the moment. Getting an X2 over a 'normal' 64 probably makes sense to most high performance users.

Although it is a pretty lame article it is a good point. The only thing I could think of using 10,000 cores for at the moment is BOINC, now that would be interesting.

F@H>BIONIC :p
 

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
0
Originally posted by: Leper Messiah
Originally posted by: George Powell
Two cores is probably the limit of what is really useful on the desktop at the moment. Getting an X2 over a 'normal' 64 probably makes sense to most high performance users.

Although it is a pretty lame article it is a good point. The only thing I could think of using 10,000 cores for at the moment is BOINC, now that would be interesting.
F@H>BIONIC :p
(F@H, BOINC, FAD, etc.) >>>>>> nothing :D

Except for very specialized scientific applications, I think that even the average enthusiast user here would have a very hard time keeping a quad CPU system occupied for the majority of the time (excluding DC projects). I'm not saying that I wouldn't love having one, but for my usage patterns, it would speed things up a single bit.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,202
216
106
When will we have systems equipped with an optimized neural interface linked to brain cells ?
 

sonoma1993

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,412
20
81
when will we have a processor like the ones used for the terminator in termintor, terminator 2?
 

mikester

Member
Aug 8, 2005
59
0
0
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.
 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Originally posted by: mikester
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.

LOL
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Originally posted by: bjc112
Originally posted by: mikester
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.

LOL

Sounds like a decent idea to be honest. Id like 1 strong core for gaming and 1-2 smaller cores to handle minor tasks such as Anti-Virus/Spyware active or passive scanning, open apps, encoding etc.

Its probably not a realistic idea to be implemented but it is nice for those who only need the 1 powerful core and a small supplimentry core to take the secondary tasks away from the main core.

EDIT: Also considering that the market is moving towards multi-threaded applications, the 1 strong, 2 weaker core idea wouldnt be very useful in the longrun.
 

redhatlinux

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
493
0
0
I don't entirely agree with the premise. If you can affinity the operating system to one core and other low priortity apps, and keep your mega single threaded app in the other core, without OS interference then you will still gain. OS overheand can be quite a bit. Mixing processor speeds is simply a pain considering common memory access.
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Sep 16, 2005
15,682
14
81
www.markbetz.net
Ok, so open up Task Manager, set it to show thread count for each process, and then find out how many single threaded apps are running on your system.

Then you'll know how useful this article was.
 

Hyperlite

Diamond Member
May 25, 2004
5,664
2
76
Originally posted by: Elcs
Originally posted by: bjc112
Originally posted by: mikester
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.

LOL

Sounds like a decent idea to be honest. Id like 1 strong core for gaming and 1-2 smaller cores to handle minor tasks such as Anti-Virus/Spyware active or passive scanning, open apps, encoding etc.

Its probably not a realistic idea to be implemented but it is nice for those who only need the 1 powerful core and a small supplimentry core to take the secondary tasks away from the main core.

EDIT: Also considering that the market is moving towards multi-threaded applications, the 1 strong, 2 weaker core idea wouldnt be very useful in the longrun.


nah, it most likely won't be any cheaper than full power cores, mabye even more expensive. too much R&D. its just not very realistic.
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
1,575
126
Everyone is running lots of threads all the time, so the article seems a bit silly.

Markbnj already said this.... :D
 

TomKazansky

Golden Member
Sep 18, 2004
1,401
0
0
how about they just throw us the cache and we set however many cores we need? it would be the best solution if possible.
 

Accord99

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2001
2,259
172
106
Originally posted by: Markbnj
Ok, so open up Task Manager, set it to show thread count for each process, and then find out how many single threaded apps are running on your system.

Then you'll know how useful this article was.

You should show the CPU Time for each of these processes and compare it to the System Idle time. Just because an app is threaded doesn't mean all of those threads are CPU intensive. Most just sleep in the background and wake up intermittently and only do work for a short period of time.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Lol what about multi core is the future? Future games will take advantage of it, etc? In reality, single core is what Most people really need, unless they have some multi-threaded application they reguarly use.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Yep, 10000 cores sure wont make apps faster. So what will? Theyve kinda hit a roof with the whole mhz thing for the most part. We need some sorta new type of CPU, not just a new architechture, a totally new type of CPU!! Like going from horse power to steam, somthing radically different.
 

BlingBlingArsch

Golden Member
May 10, 2005
1,249
0
0
i can tell u what u get for the extra 200$
u make AMD rich, which is good :) u kick Intels a§§ which is even better, u send a message to programmers that ur willing to buy their new multithreaded versions with the flashy mulltithreaded sticker on it, u get a great ocer, they deliver enough performance for all u want to do with a comp, and they will be still good power horses in 3-4 years.
200$ bucks, cmon :) whats the deal.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,737
12,721
136
Originally posted by: mikester
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.

Check out the Cell architecture. That's sort of what they have. One main processor, and 8 vector-processing units, per Cell. Funky eh?
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
6
81
Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Originally posted by: mikester
I wonder if AMD/Intel have considered multi-core processors with maybe 2 full power cores, plus a couple of less powerful cores to dedicate to things like your firewall or antivirus software. I agree it would be difficult for the average desktop user to utilize 4 high-speed cores, but give me 2 good cores and a couple smaller ones (like maybe 1 GHz each) so that Norton Internet Security doesn't drag my system down as much, and I would be a happy camper.

Check out the Cell architecture. That's sort of what they have. One main processor, and 8 vector-processing units, per Cell. Funky eh?

Not when you only have one main processor, and the vector processing units, myabe not as useful as one might think without specialised coding, and if you're doing specialised coding, you might as well make it multi threaded.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,737
12,721
136
Originally posted by: Lonyo

Not when you only have one main processor, and the vector processing units, myabe not as useful as one might think without specialised coding, and if you're doing specialised coding, you might as well make it multi threaded.

I personally don't like Cell much, but the fellow I quoted was essentially asking for something similar to Cell. Granted, Cell's vector units aren't useful as general-purpose cores.
 

Bull Dog

Golden Member
Aug 29, 2005
1,985
1
81
Originally posted by: Hacp
Lol what about multi core is the future? Future games will take advantage of it, etc? In reality, single core is what Most people really need, unless they have some multi-threaded application they reguarly use.

Hacp I'm really starting to get sick of your (nobody needs a dual core processor) attitude.

I can personally attest (like MANY other people here) to the benifits of a dual core processor. And I went from a 3500+ to the X2 4400+.
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Sep 16, 2005
15,682
14
81
www.markbetz.net
[You should show the CPU Time for each of these processes and compare it to the System Idle time. Just because an app is threaded doesn't mean all of those threads are CPU intensive]

That's not as relevant as you think. The key metric is not how much of the CPU capacity is being used over time, but how often more than one thread needs to execute _at the same time_. This happens very often in Windows, and whenever it does, you slow down.