Xeons for programming

[p3ndldqny2]

Am i right in thinking a Xeon would only be better for developing if i were running more than 8 threads concurrently (and therefore using 2x Xeons)?

Im writing some software to monitor operating system metrics and wondered whether to get a fast-clocked i7 or a couple of slower clocked, but obviously 24 hyperthreads, Xeons.

 

[The Asgard]

I develop multithreaded software and your software if written correctly should run well on a single core and scale with the available processors. Issues you will get are synchronisation problems that can crop up with multiple cores. I find the I7 a good compromise with it's hyper threading. Using VMWare you can dial in the processors for testing purposes.

What are you using to develop your software?

 

[p3ndldqny2]

I develop multithreaded software and your software if written correctly should run well on a single core and scale with the available processors. Issues you will get are synchronisation problems that can crop up with multiple cores. I find the I7 a good compromise with it's hyper threading. Using VMWare you can dial in the processors for testing purposes.

What are you using to develop your software?

Just VS2010 on Win 7 (C++)

 

[The Asgard]

Just VS2010 on Win 7 (C++)

I use VS 2008 under Windows 7 64 Bit with all my target OS in VM's

My development machine is based on a water cooled I7 with 12GB, Intel 160GB SSD, 160GB Raptor and 2GB Data HD. Works very well.

Target machines are anthing from Single core Intel CPU running 32 Bit XP right up to Server 2008 64 Bit running Dual Quad Core Xeons.

 

[p3ndldqny2]

Target machines are anthing from Single core Intel CPU running 32 Bit XP right up to Server 2008 64 Bit running Dual Quad Core Xeons.

I dont mean this rudely when i ask, but what is the point in creating targets with hardware your actual processor cannot simulate?

I must admit im not an expert on VMWare although i know the basics you can create lots of virtual computers with different OSs etc.

Im just trying to work out the reason, presumably the performance of a virtual dual-processor Xeon wont be the same as a real dual processor Xeon, as everyone would just use VMWare and not actually get the chip!

 

[The Asgard]

I dont mean this rudely when i ask, but what is the point in creating targets with hardware your actual processor cannot simulate?

I must admit im not an expert on VMWare although i know the basics you can create lots of virtual computers with different OSs etc.

Im just trying to work out the reason, presumably the performance of a virtual dual-processor Xeon wont be the same as a real dual processor Xeon, as everyone would just use VMWare and not actually get the chip!

When I mean target machines I mean actual machines.

With regard to the VM you can only assign cores that are available. Having a VM of all your OS is easier to support.