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12 Core AMD Processors

There is already a huge amount of software that can use large numbers of processors. Try using a Java Application Server - Tomcat/Weblogic/Websphere/JBoss/JRocket/JAS etc. All can be set to use large numbers of threads and then generally scale horizontally.

Sun's Niagara chips use 8 slow cores with fine-grained multi-threading so that up to four threads can be in each core simultaneously allowing 32 simultaneous threads. The Niagara2 chips can do 8 threads per core allowing 64 threads and new servers coming this year allow up to four Niagara2 chips to be in a single board which appears to the OS to have 256 cpus. And only 95W per eight-core/64-thread chip at 1.4GHz.

And no, they don't play games on them!
 
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12 cores better multitasking :D
You will really be able to play games without any stutter while doing batch encoding,ray traced anim, Folding@home ect...
 
12 cores better multitasking :D
You will really be able to play games without any stutter while doing batch encoding,ray traced anim, Folding@home ect...

Fair enough, but how many people are actually going to do that?

Its fine for the top top end of the market, but for the average user who will probably just have reached quadcore by then, I doubt they even know what raytracing and Folding@home is. :)
 
Bottom line is, the faster the increasing cores becomes the norm, the better.

Software will take advantage of it if 4 cores is the norm in desktops. Windows Vista likes the more ram and CPU's as it can gets its hands on.

Even the average user encodes DVD's and whatever, at thjs rate they will be able to encode all their home and holiday movies at once :P
 
Erm yeah, Ray traced games can only run at 512x512 on Eight Cores, according to the guy who re-coded Quake 4 for Ray Tracing.

So eventually, 12 cores will become a base-line neccessity like anything else. It's progress, therefore good.
 
AMD will be all but sunk in the top end CPU market when Nehalem hits, Even a skulltrail system with 8 core would mostly likely be faster than a 12 core amd setup lol
 
Why is the focus on making a better CPU to run more than demanding applications, when it should be on making more efficient applications and code. Like some guy said 'as computers get faster, applications get slower' or something. Surely a 12 core would be more prone to manufacturing defects and would have a lower yield as more cores means more chance of a core failing.
 
Still, 6 cores will have a lower yield, then 8 cores, 10 etc there must be a point when they can't just keep adding more cores to a die or adding more dies to a chip etc.
 
It really depends on what manufacture process they use, tho it would seem easyer if they kept the number of core low and just went with multi socketed chips as the current draw alone for 12 cores on one die would be extream.
 
Believe it or not, it's much more expensive for a company to write really efficient code than to recommend a ridiculously over-engineered server/pc to the customer. Really efficient code means low-level languages like assembler or <shudder>machine code</shudder>. Such code becomes cpu-specific meaning complete re-writes when a new design comes out. Do you have any idea how different a Core2Duo is from a P4? Or from an AMD Phenom?
 
if you can clock all those cores independantly like with the current phenoms, by the time I'd finished doing all 12 that would be somewhere near the amount of cores that I've clocked in total in the 4 years I've been building lol (counting duals and quads up to press as one cpu)!
 
As said above, pointless outside servers unless games and programs take advantage quickly.

AMD should be working on creating a dual/quad that wipes the floor with Intel, then they can work on their multiple core stuff.

Actually, that is what some people said above. Other people including me, who do creative work want more cores.

Plus, if 4 - 8 cores becomes the norm, then it will be more likely that the programs will be released to take advantage of it. ALready a few games do (Unreal, Supreme, the upcoming alan wake won't even run on a single core!).

Photoshop, and other creative programs love multi cores, and even programs to encode DVD's do.

And even if they can only handle 4 cores each program (which most can handle more) I will take that. 4 cores rendering a video, another 4 playing alan wake suits me :P
 
Actually, that is what some people said above. Other people including me, who do creative work want more cores.

Plus, if 4 - 8 cores becomes the norm, then it will be more likely that the programs will be released to take advantage of it. ALready a few games do (Unreal, Supreme, the upcoming alan wake won't even run on a single core!).

Photoshop, and other creative programs love multi cores, and even programs to encode DVD's do.

And even if they can only handle 4 cores each program (which most can handle more) I will take that. 4 cores rendering a video, another 4 playing alan wake suits me :P

Yes, that's true, but people who are actually going to use the 12 cores aren't the majority of the market.
 
Yes, that's true, but people who are actually going to use the 12 cores aren't the majority of the market.

True, for now. But then if the tech is out there, programs will eventually do so.

Its the old argument of:

"nothing supports it. Thats because its not out and normal".

Software houses need to write for the lowest end users I am afraid, so I doubt 8 cores will be the min for a long while on software, but I think writting software to take advantage of it will become more normal.

Plus, even the average joe or sandra convert DVD movies, maybe clean audio, that kind of thing.
 
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