One core , Dual core & Quad core ?

[POISON]

hey all !
as we know , there is various kinds of powerful CPUs today. The most recognizable thing that all the recent cpus are dual core !
the confusing thing that I dont understand what is the different between a dual core and one core CPUs ? is dual core a two chips ? or 2 cores in one chip ? same question for the quad core !

Im confused because I have Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.06GHz HT (524) : http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL8ZZ .. the documentation of the cpu says its not a dual core .. BUT , I have a program called SIW which collect info about the pc in general says that I have 2 Logical cores ! what does that suppose to mean !!

[liambl]

The early dual core, the Pentium D, was just two Pentium 4 chips in one CPU. The newer dual cores from AMD and Intel have one chip that has 2 cores. When it comes to the quads it gets different. The AMD quad is one chip with 4 cores. The Intel quad has 2 chips with 2 cores each, it is just like the Pentium D in this aspect, it's just two dual core chips on one CPU. The reason for your Pentium 4 being shown as dual core is due to Hyper-Threading(notice the "HT" in the model). Hyper threading makes the computer think there are two cores by dividing the single core into two logical cores. This was supposed to increase multitasking performance by limiting single threaded apps to one half, letting another app use the other half. This was debatable, as it reduced the performance of the PC when running one app, as it could only access half the CPU.

[POISON]

aha .. this is nice .. u made interested .. so if I disabled the HT from the BIOS will I gain more performance when I use one application ? like games for instance ?

[glc]

Doubtful. Leave it enabled.