John Nagle wrote:
I look at this as Python's answer to multicore CPUs and "Go".
On that note, I went to a talk at Stanford yesterday by one of the designers of Intel's Nelahem core. The four-core, eight thread version is out now. The six-core, twelve thread version is working; the speaker has one in his lab. The eight-core, sixteen thread version is some months away. This isn't an expensive CPU; this is Intel's "converged" mainstream product. (Although there will be a whole range of "economy" and "performance" versions, all with the same core but with some stuff turned off.) Python isn't ready for this. Not with the GIL. Multiple processes are not the answer. That means loading multiple copies of the same code into different areas of memory. The cache miss rate goes up accordingly. John Nagle -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list