Does WinXP take advantage of Dual core processors?

[nippyjun]

Does WinXP take advantage of Dual core processors?

 

[ProviaFan]

Yes.

 

[terroradagio]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
Yes.

Correction.

Windows XP Pro does. No support in Home.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: terroradagio

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
Yes.

Correction.

Windows XP Pro does. No support in Home.

Question.

I thought MS was licensing by the socket, not by the core or "virtual processor," so Home Edition should in theory be able to take advantage of dual cores. Why anyone would want to run Home Edition anyway is beyond me, but I would have thought that utilizing dual cores would not be beyond its capabilities.

Edit: This is an official statement from Microsoft. Have they said anything else to contradict that in terms of dual core support for XP Home?

 

[Viditor]

Both Home and Pro support dual cores...this is a common misconception.
What Home doesn't support is 2 physical sockets, but it does support 2 cores

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: Viditor
Both Home and Pro support dual cores...this is a common misconception.
What Home doesn't support is 2 physical sockets, but it does support 2 cores

How does that make sense? To the OS, they would be the same exact thing. My understanding was that the HAL of Home doesn't support SMP at all, so my answer would be no.

Who runs XP home anyways?

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: L3p3rM355i4h

Originally posted by: Viditor
Both Home and Pro support dual cores...this is a common misconception.
What Home doesn't support is 2 physical sockets, but it does support 2 cores

How does that make sense? To the OS, they would be the same exact thing. My understanding was that the HAL of Home doesn't support SMP at all, so my answer would be no.

Who runs XP home anyways?

To quote from the licensing link that ProviaFan posted above...

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

Per installation means per socket...

 

[Leper Messiah]

ok. I'm wrong. I'll admit it.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: L3p3rM355i4h
ok. I'm wrong. I'll admit it.

Not so fast...I know it allows it, but your question on SMP has me wondering if it just shuts off one core...time for research!
Very good point!

 

[theMan]

winxp home = poopy
winxp pro = athlon 64 X2!!!!

yay, i still remember how to talk like a 4 year old!!!

 

[imported_whatever]

The only difference between different versions of WinXP is 8 bytes at the beginning of the disk. So, I believe that XP Home supports dual core, as I know it supports HT (which is, to the OS, indistinguishable from dual core iirc)

 

[Duvie]

Remember dual core is really not seen as much different then HT and also remember AMD implemented certain features of HT merely to tak advanatge of SOFTWARE which recognizes HT in P4s now...

P4's w/ ht work in Winxp home...

 

[dbentley1267]

yes hyper threading works in home

but if you put home on a true smp system it will know it is and smp system but will use only 1 processor (CPU 0)

when i was testing xp home (whistler) i ran into this because all of my systems were dual cpu systems

MS said that was the way it will be