Topic: We're doing 6 cores!

[Clive]

The new Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (codenamed "Gulftown") is a six-core CPU that promises a whole new level of performance.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361144,00.asp

[sam]

cool.

We were talking about getting 8 core machines the other day... more and more ram will be needed to take advantage of these chips.

[Rik]

Now all we have to wait for is the software to catch up...

[Simon]

You wouldn't need central heating with that in the room! 

[Rik]

True, but think of the cost of the air con in summer...

[Simon]

Summer?  Oh yes, I remember that!  It's too bleedin' hot! 

[Rik]

Well, occasionally...

[sam]

Now all we have to wait for is the software to catch up...

ah, wait for what?

all of the current operating systems, even friggin windows, can deal with multiple cores - its just sends jobs to different cores... not many of the software packages will be using them in a parallel threaded manner but they will be dynamically arranging resources so you maximise the usage of them.

[Rik]

Though a program like Photoshop would really benefit from being able to use multiple cores.

[sam]

im not sure if the newer versions dont... but isn't it more of a memory issue than raw processing speed? Of course a better solution would be for graphical editors to run on the GPU - since surely they are just doing matrix algebra.

[Rik]

You certainly can't give PShop too much memory, Sam, though I remember a time when it choked if you had more than 1GB installed.