Dual Processor vs. Dual Core questions

[mgravy]

Just wondering..... I?ve been out of the building loop since I put together a Dual Tyan a few years ago, back when dual processing was first released. Now I want to do it all over again. I have a couple of questions that will hopefully get me started in my research quest?

1) Is there a dual processor board that is generally regarded as the top dog? Or at least a few that are in the running?

2) How do the new dual cores compare in performance to dual processors? (not in terms of price). Are they somewhat comparable to each other?

Thanks!

(btw- I'm only interested in AMD solutions)

 

[imported_Kensai]

Tyan K8WE, from what I've seen dual-cores are just as good as a dual proc system with single cores.

 

[biostud]

click

 

[NokiaDude]

Dual core is nice because it shares the RAM. I believe with dual processors you need RAM for each processor. Right?

 

[aka1nas]

It depends on the system architecture. Athlon MPs and Xeons used a shared FSB and memory access is all shared via one controller. Some Opterons have NUMA which means that each has their own memory more or less. However, even in that case they can use all the memory in the system, they just have to issue the memory request via Hypertransport through the other CPU. This only has a small (sub 5%) performance penalty.

 

[uOpt]

BTW, are the first dual-core opterons capable of running in pair, i.e. do 4-way SMP in a dual socket 940 board?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
BTW, are the first dual-core opterons capable of running in pair, i.e. do 4-way SMP in a dual socket 940 board?

Yes sir.

 

[imported_Kensai]

That's what I want to do. 🙂