WE HAVEN’T HAD a chance to listen to all of the analyst conference Intel held last Thursday, but there is one snippet that ought to make everyone prick their ears up. Intel said it’s likely to introduce dual core processors for the desktop as early as 2005, so the fashion to move towards these kind of chips continues.

With die sizes getting ever so small now, it’s all beginning to make some kind of sense. And of course AMD has indicated that it’s going to introduce dual core chips too, along with Sun and the world/dog.

News source: The Inq

Changes and Updates for 4.8
• A new eBay pane has been added
• A new Dictionary pane has been added
• A new Quote pane has been added
• New custom image panes have been added
• An alarm has been added to the clock pane
• A calendar and clock display has been added to the new expanded part of the clock pane
• Alerts have been added to the calendar pane
• A clipboard pane that supports standard text and rich text has been added
• The weather channel feed has been repaired
• The stock watcher has been repaired
• The appearance of the weather channel and web search have been improved
• The appearance and functionality of the command line pane has been improved
• The volume control now has a context menu for accessing volume settings
• Bugs related to the bar not positioning itself when the screen resolution changes or the taskbar repositioning have been resolved
• Bugs related to the bar not hiding itself when a full screen app is detected have been resolved
• Control buttons and the option for continuous scrolling have been added to the news ticker
• An option to display the Mother Board Monitor display's temperatures in Fahrenheit has been added

Fixes for v0.981
• The network monitor on the Adv System Monitor has been repaired
• The BBC Weather pane expanding bug has been fixed
• The custom image pane bugs have been repaired
• The eBay pane has been fixed
• The pane maximize bug has been fixed
• The taskbar button right click bug has been fixed
• The font for dates and times can now be changed in config.exe if they are not displayed correctly
• The media players have been improved
• There is now an option to display the alarm settings by double clicking, and the calendar by single clicking for the clock pane
• Several visual enhancements have been made, including fading button effects and new themes.


There are 21 additional comments
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(5 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by DjmUK on 26 Nov 2003 - 15:45
Now that's nice, but the question is; will it have:
- Dual ALU's on 1 chip
or
- Dual Processors on 1 chip

The reason I ask is that some supercomputers use one and others use the other. I've learnt a little about Dual Core's on my last course and all I can say is - HELL YEAH..! and a lot earlier than I predicted. It was evident that Intel/AMD would copy current supercomputer architecture designs, and it's a good move.

The other question is; will the IBM PowerPC chips also adopt these multiple cores because they're also moving to 65nm tech in a couple of years, so we may see a G6/7 chip with dual cores too.

All in all, good news - all we can do now is speculate the prices of them
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by VikingStorm on 26 Nov 2003 - 16:33
I don't remember for sure, but I think IBM already displayed a multi-core PowerPC chip a few months ago.
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by xStainDx on 26 Nov 2003 - 17:23
Dual Core should be 2 Processors on 1 CPU. Like HyperThreading only that these will be physical processors.
Quote this comment #1.3 Posted by roadwarrior on 26 Nov 2003 - 19:37
QUOTE (#1.1)
I don't remember for sure, but I think IBM already displayed a multi-core PowerPC chip a few months ago.

Yep, it was a dual core Power5 - and likely to be the basis of the next Apple machines (if we are lucky). Motorola also seems to have a dual core version of the G4 in the works (see here). An older article talks about it as well http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/18074-2.html
Quote this comment #1.4 Posted by DjmUK on 26 Nov 2003 - 23:58
That's right, I remember now - that picture the size of the palm of a hand had 8 cores on the processor. But 8 is a bit too expensive, so 2 cores on a single piece should be great.

Just think, HyperThreading on dual cores...Windows/Mac OS would see the processor as 4 seperate ones (2 physical/4 virtual).

Oh god, I just realised, Apple loves Dual CPU machines (PowerMac G5), so if they both had dual cores and HyperThreading enabled, then that would be 4 physical cores/8 virtual cores. Now that would be nice. I can't remember what Apple calls their version of HT (HyperTransport..? or is that the comms layer between the components...much like the FSB).
Quote this comment #1.5 Posted by JohnsonBox on 27 Nov 2003 - 19:08

As I guessed, Single Core means there is 1 CPU in a chip , while Dual Core means there are 2 CPU in a chip. Right?

Last edited by 15205 on 27 Nov 2003 - 19:14
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by SimplyPotatoes on 26 Nov 2003 - 15:46
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by Coolme on 26 Nov 2003 - 15:51
Can't wait 4 this.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by slapnuts_ox on 26 Nov 2003 - 17:46
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by shafi on 26 Nov 2003 - 18:03
what is dual core ??
Quote this comment #5.1 Posted by roadwarrior on 26 Nov 2003 - 19:41
Dual core means two physical processors within a single chip. The communication between them is much faster than two seperate processors.
Quote this comment #5.2 Posted by JohnsonBox on 27 Nov 2003 - 19:03
Does the processor you mentioned mean "central processing unit"?
(4 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by figgy on 26 Nov 2003 - 18:07
So hyperthreading is not dual core. Huh?
I am confused.
Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by Dessimat0r on 26 Nov 2003 - 18:28
No, it is not, Hyperthreading is meant to make use of currently unused circuitry on a chip by making the operating system think there are two processors.
Quote this comment #6.2 Posted by riahc3 on 26 Nov 2003 - 19:40
Hypertheading = There are 2 software rendered virtual processors on a 1 processor chip

Dual Core = There are 2 HARDWARE PHYSICAL processors on one chip
Quote this comment #6.3 Posted by RedHook on 26 Nov 2003 - 22:57
So, can you hythread a Dual Core?
Quote this comment #6.4 Posted by Shovel on 26 Nov 2003 - 23:38
No reason why not
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by VikingStorm on 27 Nov 2003 - 04:08
Microsoft better not make people license dual-cores as two CPUs...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by ishtar on 27 Nov 2003 - 11:55
Yea its intels way to make you think your getting more for your money by snookering people into buying them.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by redFX on 27 Nov 2003 - 13:07
Sun showcased that they were going to do 32 core CPUs. Man, multicore is going to be interesting.

Wonder if you get a 100% boost for the additional core or if its something like 50% like a normal dual cpu machine
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by Jeffsoft on 29 Nov 2003 - 06:49

is this what they gonna do?
headed for multi-core CPU , when they coudlnt increase thefrequency anymore...
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