Can XP support EIGHT (8) cores?

[MichaelD]

Was browsing the overpriced video editing workstations at DVGEAR.com and came across this beast.

It's got dual quad-core Xeons and runs XP Pro. That would be EIGHT physical cores (not hyperthreaded, but actual cores). I would've sworn that XP had a FOUR (4) core limitation?

 

[masteraleph]

No. XP has socket based differences depending on version (pro can handle two sockets, home one), but pro is capable of doing 2 sockets at 4 cores each. I don't think it can go any higher than that, though.

 

[stash]

Q. How does this licensing policy affect products such as Microsoft Windows XP Professional?

A. Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows XP Home are not affected by this policy as they are licensed per installation and not per processor. Windows XP Professional can support up to two processors regardless of the number of cores on the processor. Microsoft Windows XP Home supports one processor.

From: http://www.microsoft.com/licen...hlights/multicore.mspx

 

[MichaelD]

That explains it.

Thanks, Masteraleph and Stash. Stash; the link to MS's own page was especially helpful. :thumbsup:

 

[jonmcc33]

Yes, it's only limited to 2 physical sockets. As stated above, you can have as many cores as available.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Yes, it's only limited to 2 physical sockets. As stated above, you can have as many cores as available.

Yep, Im currently running 8 on my Vista 64 rig, but this would run Xp64 as well.
Bill