Hyperthreading question

[HondaF1]

Hi,
I have a question about the Hyper Threading feature of the P4 HT's.

I think I heard that the feature is usable only on WIndows XP. Is this true?

Will HT be usable on Windows 98 SE?


Will future operatiing systems have support for the current P4 HT feature?


Note: I could not decide whether this question fit in the processor section or the general hardware section.

 

[mechBgon]

HT won't be useful in Win98 and isn't fully supported in Win2000, but WinXP Home and WinXP Pro will both use it.

 

[AndyHui]

Multi-processor aware operating systems will be able to take advantage of HyperThreading in some form or another.

Windows 98SE does not support multi-CPUs in any form, and therefore cannot take advantage of HyperThreading; the same goes for Windows ME.

Windows XP, both Home and Professional Editions, take full advantage of HyperThreading and will get the maximum benefit.

Windows 2000 cannot distinguish between a virtual CPU and a real CPU, even though it supports SMP, so its process scheduler isn't the most efficient with regards to HT. While you will get some benefit, it won't be as good as with Windows XP.