Dual Core processors: A New and Better CPU Technology Essay

well-nigh modern indivi treble(prenominal) computing devices are based on a bingle- consequence processor that is, a whizz touch unit in one integrated circuit. Never designs begin integrated multi- content processors, which bugger off much than one touch on unit, integrated into a individual chip. The most common design of commercial multi- subject matter processor is a dual-core processor, which combines two bear upon units in one chip. These processors are social occasiond in most new orchard apple tree products, much Windows-based personal computers and many swordplay systems.Major chip manufacturers AMD and Intel both offer dual core processors for use in consumer electronics. Other chip manufacturers such as Fujitsu and Pennsylvania semiconductor invention have followed suit with their own dual core offerings. Manufacturers arent halt at dual core offerings they continue to growth the number of processing units in their multicore offerings, with four or scour eight processing units avail satisfactory. Most dual core processors are RISC-based processors (Reduced instruction Set Computing), which offers immediate processing than the standard single processor chip (Mears, 2005).Dual core processors have a number of advantages everywhere the elder single-core processors. They use less forcefulness, electric arc cooler and are faster in some applications than the older chips, change magnitude the possibility of overheating as well as reducing the devices use of power (Lynch, 2005). Virtualization, or the abstraction of six-fold mental imagerys into a single virtual resource or a single resource into multiple virtual resources, also is made possible by dual core chips (Lynch, 2005).This process greatly increases the ability of multitasking, or running multiple programs at the same cartridge holder. Dual core processors were first introduced to the consumer mart in mid-2005, with both AMD and Intel, the two largest chip manufac turers, bringing their products onto the market place at closely the same season (Lynch, 2005). They quickly became popular, particularly with graphic artists and gamers, who required the faster performance of the dual core processor. However, machines built with the processors had a steep terms tag, slowing the consumer adoption of the processors.Dual core processors were at first lone(prenominal) offered in high-end workstations intended for graphics-intensive playing period or graphics creation, and the machines often had toll tags of $5,000 or more (Begun, 2005). Today, they are offered in most major computer lines, including apple, IBM and others. Notebook computers also offer dual core processors. By the time dual core processors were introduced in 2005, single core processors had reached their hurry confines due to limits on the size of chip components (Lynch, 2005) Dual core processors did not offer faster speeds for all programs at first.Because of the design of t he chip, unless programs that were able to run multithreaded (dividing the required calculations between two different processors) would see an increase of speed when use with a dual core processor. At the time the processors were introduced, this included operating systems such as Windows, some graphics programs wish Adobe Photoshop and many graphics-intensive games, particularly multi-player Internet based games (Begun, 2005). Lynch (2005) note that a popular consumer application of the dual core chip would be to download media such as television or movies spell vie a game using the other core.More impressive than the skill games in high-calculation applications is the turn offd power requirement and heat production. Wongs summary of the PA Semiconductor PA6T dual core chip demonstrates the gains made over single core chips in this area. The PA6T chip uses the 64 bit powerfulness architecture, and uses a fine-grain clock gating approach to reduce the power usage level of f further (Wong, 2007). The chip uses only 13W of power for a 2-gHz chip, offering a signifi pratt advantage over a single-core processor. Lynch (2005) stated that while a single core AMD chip used 89 Watts, a dual core chip with twice the processing power used only 95.Lynch noted that the heat gains that were realized with the dual core architecture were especially important in reducing fan note and emissions. Single core chips could not run faster than they did without producing significant, sometimes stark levels of heat, which required ever-larger processor fans to disperse. The dual core architecture, which ran far cooler than single core architecture, resolved this problem easily (Lynch, 2005). The ability to use virtualization is a major benefit of dual core processors. Virtualization originated as a distrisolelyed computing concept.Using virtualization, physical computing resources such as processing units, memory, and dish antenna storage are overlaid with a virtual repr esentation which reorganizes the physical resources into a virtual architecture, creating a single virtual resource out of more than one physical resource or partitioning a single physical resource into multiple virtual resources (Ernest & Fellenstein, 2004). Virtualization not only increases efficiency and reduces spending on physical computing resources it can greatly reduce power usage (Information Week, 2006).This technique is used in Web serve development, grid computing and a number of other areas of computer science. use of virtualization to personal computers with dual core processors has been very successful in race applications and multitasking. VMWare, a popular implementation of virtualization for personal computers, began to nurture dual core processors shortly afterward their commercial introduction, offering their first dual core product in 2005 (Mears, 2005). Sun Microsystems is another major provider of virtualization software.In 2006, Sun announced plans to pr ovide virtualization software that could run up to 32 processes on a single multicore processor, increasing to 64 processors the year after introduction (Information Week, 2006). Suns new systems immediately showed the benefits of the power-saving multicore processors. David Young, CEO of Joyent, a provider of e-mail and storage services, says he saw immediate benefits in moving to UltraSparc T1-based systems. With a customer base doubling each of the preceding(a) two years, Joyent attempted to increase capacity at a co-location facility, but was told there was no available power.Joyent consolidated a number of older Intel-based Dell servers onto 20 Sun servers. Each Sun server deliver the company more than $1,000 per year in power and temperature reduction costs, and generated an additive $1,000 per year in rebates from the utility provider. If I can save $4,000 a month, thats someone I else I can hire to purify our service to our customers, he says. (Information Week, 2006). D ual core processors have gained increasing word sense in the consumer and business market.According to Lynch (2005), the majority of the consumer processor market was predicted to be dual core processors by 2007. However, there are regular(a) bigger and better things on the horizon. Multicore processors dont stop at only two processing units processors with up to 1,024 processing units have been intentional in the laboratory, and commercial offerings now range up to 8 processing units. Apple has announced that their Mac Pro desktop machine can now be configured with two 3. 0 gHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors, for a total of eight processing units (eWeek, 2007).The machine, targeted to graphic designers, software developers and researchers, can support up to 8 displays, has 16MB total of L2 cache and a 1333 MHz effort side bus. Although the Mac Pro is on the high end of consumer desktops, the Apple spokesperson stated The eight-core Mac Pro gives pro software developers a plat form to prepare new versions of their application for the future, when eight-core technology is more paramount on the desktop (eWeek, 2007). If the enthusiastic consumer adoption of dual-core technology is an indication, the future Apple dreams of is not too far off.Dual core processors offer a wide margin of improvement over the older single-core processors in many areas. Increased speed for popular applications such as 3-d gaming and graphics programs make the processors attractive decreased heat output and power requirements ease environmental and operations concerns. The benefit of virtualization has brought levels of computing previously only enjoyed by users of large-scale grid computing, multi-processor servers or other industrial or academic computing environments home to the desktop.Ever-widening horizons of multicore processing offer the promise of even greater and more powerful home computing. Dual core processors are only the start of the future of consumer computing. W orks Cited Wong, William. Judicious clocking subdues power-architecture cooling needs this 2- GHz, dual-core processor uses thousands of gated clocks to cut power requirements by more than a factor of three. (LeapFrog). Electronic Design 55. 9 (April 27, 2007) 34(2). Begun, Daniel, Rich Brown, and Matthew Elliott. level best multitasking dual-core CPUs double up for faster multithread processing. (Central processing units). information processing system Shopper 25. 7 (July 2005) 96(2). Joseph, J. , M. Ernest, and C. Fellenstein. exploitation of grid computing architecture and grid adoption models. IBM Systems Journal 43. 4 (Dec 2004) 624(22). Mears, Jennifer. VMware virtually primed for dual core. Network World (July 25, 2005) 25. Sun Expands Virtualization Products, operate Sun is introducing enhancedvirtualization technology for its UltraSparc T1 CoolThreads servers that will let customers run up to 32 applications simultaneously on a single processor. (Sun Microsystems Inc . ). InformationWeek (Oct 17, 2006) NA. Analysis Dual-core processors speed to market. More is most definately better that less when it comes to CPUs. With the ability to run many applications in tandem, the new product will dominate the PC market in no more than a couple of years says Martin Lynch. Computer Reseller News (Oct 17, 2005) 27. Apple Unveils Eight-Core Mac Pro. eWeek (April 4, 2007) NA.