On Sun, 2003-07-13 at 05:53, Timo Boettcher wrote: > Hi Mark, > > Nachricht vom Samstag, 12. Juli 2003, 21:50:49: > > > The argument seems to go that on a DP machine one processor will > > handle the GUI/OS/drivers and the second processor will handle the > > audio application. However, no one (that I know of anyway) has > > really measured this quantitatively and shown it to be true. (It > > might be to subjective anyway...) Any thoughts? > AFAIK the trick of SMP (Symetric Multi Processing) is that it is > symetric, there is no cpu dedicated to some (OS|Driver|Gui|App) Task. > If thats wrong, please correct me.
I don't know. I'm really asking myself. As I said, I think this is urban legend, or at least the people that tell me these things never seem to be able to demonstrate it. > > > My concern has generally been that every SMP machine I've looked at > > (admittedly not that many) seems to be a generation behind in > > chipsets and memory technology which goes against the goal. If I > > agree to pay more money for a second processor I'd at least like the > > rest of the machine to be equivalent technology. > I guess thats a question of money. What are you missing on > dual-boards? Nothing is 'missing', but, as I said earlier, the SMP machines, for a sililar price, tend to be a generation behind. For instance, PC2700 memory was emerging at the time I bought this specific Linux box. I could get a single CPU Athlon XP machine using PC2100 memory, or I could get an SMP machine with slower PC2100 (I think that's what it was at the time) memory and two processors. As I remember my shopping experience (I built the machine) I could have gotten two Athlon XP 1600+ processors, 512MB of PC2100 memory and a more expensive SMP motherboard, or a single PC XP 2600+ with 512MB PC2700 and a newer motherboard which is what I did. I made my choice based on what I knew at the time, which is cool because it's all basically a crap shoot anyway, but I'd certainly be interested in more and better information for some future purchase. I'm sure this is not the last computer I will build. - Mark -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list