18 replies to this topic

[bloodchains]

I just want to understand something. Let's say a processor is quad-core and it has 3.0 GHz. Does this mean each core has 3.0 GHz, or is that divided by the four cores?

[mebob]

Each core has a clock of 3.0 GHz. The clock speed isn't "divided" between the cores.

[bloodchains]

Oh great, thanks. I've always been wondering about that.

[bbqroast]

Wait I'm a tad confused to, I'm assuming the quad wouldn't be twice as powerful as a duo providing they had the same clock speed?

[WingedPanther]

In theory, quad is twice as powerful as duo, since it has twice the cores. In reality, they are still sharing the same RAM, HDD, etc, so bottlenecks in those resources are still quite possible. Anything that can be done strictly in-cache will see the full benefit.

[Vaielab]

Plus, the software has to be optimised for multi-core

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

GHz measures clock speed. Cores generally operate at the same speed, so it would be 3.0 GHz for each core. It doesn't really make sense to divide it.

[bloodchains]

So is the purpose of having many cores to make multitasking easier and faster?

[Vaielab]

Well yes,
But the true purpose is because they aren't able to get more ghz, so they make more core

[WingedPanther]

Moore's Law broke.

[Vaielab]

Not sure if moore law is directly related to the ghz and not the power of the computer.
If it's the power (speed or whatever you call it), morre's laws is still right

[WingedPanther]

Moore's law was either speed or # of transistors on a chip. The problem is, as you increase the cores, you only get more power if you use threaded programming. Having Quad Core won't speed up Word, though it will speed up the combination of Word, Excel, and FireFox.