* Bruce Marshall <bmarsh@bmarsh.com> (Fri, Mar 05, 2004 at 07:57:37AM -0500)
I would more than likely go with a 64bit chip before I went to two processors. The inter-processor protocols, the physical parameters introduced by the finite propagation speed of electromagnetic impulses, and the need for software to support (external) SMP make it unattractive.
I have a P4 2.8 running quite nicely here with HT. Can we gin up some simple test to see what it does?
I think I have an answer for you and Lee is right.
I wrote a simple looping program that would show the elapsed time for nnnn passes through the loop. Run by itself, a valid time would be 1.55 secs for one pass. Start up another copy of the same program, and the time for each became 2.9. Close enough to twice the time that it's obvious the HT is a sham.
``obvious that HT is a sham'' and that is based on one simple looping program. Please read up onw hat HT is, what it does and under which circumstances it can be benificial. Or give it a try on your machien, and check the performance of a bunch of common programs with and witout HT. Your mileage may indeed vary, but I've found that enabling HT indeed gives a slightly snappier experience, and certain programs (esp once that do a lot of floating point operations and that are multithread aware) will clearly benefit from having it on. But given that HT these dayts comes for free (more or less) it's a cheap test to turn it on . Kind regards, -- Gerhard den Hollander Phone :+31-10.280.1515 ICT manager Direct:+31-10.280.1539 Fugro-Jason Fax :+31-10.280.1511 gdenhollander@Fugro-Jason.com POBox 1573 visit us at http://www.Fugro-Jason.com 3000 BN Rotterdam JASON.......#1 in Reservoir Characterization The Netherlands This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee. This e-mail shall not be deemed binding unless confirmed in writing. If you have received it by mistake, please let us know by e-mail reply and delete it from your system; you may not copy this message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.