AMD are reportedly working on a sort of ‘Anti-Hyperthreading’, which could allow multiple physical CPU cores to emulate one physical core. The problem with dual (and soon quad) core processors like the AMD X2 range is that most applications are still written for single core processors, so do not make effective use of multiple cores.
According to Bit-Tech.net AMD’s new platform, AM2 won’t be able to compete with Intel’s Conroe offering in terms of raw native performance, but this feature would give them a huge edge in single core applications. The idea of taking two pieces of hardware and making them function as one isn’t new. Hard drives do it in Raid 0 configuration, and graphics cards also emulate one card with two via crossfire or SLi. The performance gains with these can equal over 80% in added performance, so the potential of an Anti-Hyperthreading CPU could be huge.
