Multi-core curiosities

[Job]

ok so we're moving to quad-core soon - my question (more of a wondering really) is instead of delegating particular tasks to particular cores, would it be better/faster to split the processing task in to 4 parts and have each core do 1/4 of the work? Knowing nothing about how CPUs actually work, I figured I'd ask some ppl who know what they're talking about - this is especially interesting following Intels demonstration of a CPU with 80 separate cores

http://news.com.com/Intel+shows+off+80-core+processor/2100-1006_3-6158181.html

 

[PCTC2]

well, the problem with splitting tasks is that after calculations, each core would still have to communicate and other stuff (i don't feel like going into it. it has been a long day)
and if you split the work, errors can pop up.
Let's just leave it at the fact that it's a bad idea.

 

[Munky]

You could only split the task between cores if the application is coded to do so. Otherwise there's no good way (yet) to take a single-threaded task and make it multi-threaded.