why did you buy your last computer?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Neutrino
Asher:
Wouldn't software need to be optimized to take advantage of HT?

Hmm wait.. if the OS knows about HT then it can choose to assign the 2nd process from the OS' PCB to the CPU - but does it choose the optimal solution (one that does not interfere w/ the other running process so that no deadlock occurs).

Programs optimized for HT show the most improvement, but it doesn't need to be so. Most applications today are single-threaded (they only use one thread), and HT won't show any performance advantage in that case unless you are running two different programs at once (say, video encoding & norton anti-virus). More and more programs are designed for either dual processors (SMP) or hyperthreading (SMT). SMP programs usually show a considerable performance boost with HT, SMT programs show the most.

And Windows XP is the only Windows OS that actually understands and recognizes HT. Windows 95, 98, and Me won't use HyperThreading at all, and Windows 2000 treats it as a 2nd physical processor.

[Neutrino]

I wondering how the OS will determine the optimal choice in picking the other processes to run concurrently in order to maximize resource efficiency and utilization (and avoid something like the Dining Philosopher's problem). Maybe it looks at the address spaces of each process on the PCB and compares the shared blocks?

[CivPatriot]

bought a laptop for college, an ibook

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Mercator


You were discussing multi-threading...

And then another poster expressed excitement over it, so I joked that he had something to masturbate over.

[Kramerman]