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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scrapps who wrote (21405)	8/26/2001 2:01:34 AM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

re: multi-processor (MP) stuff. • what are the disadvantages? Do they require special software? Will my older software programs run? • No disadvantages, per se. Not all apps are optimized to take advantage of MP boxes, though. They don't require special software—apps run "as normal" if they haven't been given MP support, and "better" if they have. Your older programs will run, of course with no noticeable benefit from the add'l processor. • Also my video programing with Adobe Premier is way to much for my current system it constantly is crashing… • Premier a memory pig. It may say 32 Mb on the box, but it (like many other DV apps) would really prefer 128+.

To: Scrapps who wrote (21405)	8/26/2001 4:35:12 AM
From: analog5	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

I think the dual processor PCs run the same software including Windows OS. I think tasks (pieces of the program) from a task queue are simply handed off to either processor as they become available for work. The OS probably resides in the master processor and delegates problems to the slave processor. I'm not sure, just guessing. I think the principal disadvantage is the extra power they consume, plus the added complexity and cost. They are generally put in server applications where a lot of data is being hurled around: gigabit ethernet pipes. Tyan makes the only dual processor motherboard for the AMD Palomino and it requires a special power supply. I recommend the Abit KG7 motherboard with an AMD Athlon (1.2GHz processor, 266MHz front side bus) as a single processor system that will meet all but the most critical user's needs. I find these new PCs make short order of an unimaginable amount of bloatware. The Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS (Visiontek) is a good graphics card for a single monitor. For dual display, Nvidia isn't as good as the other manufacturers. Check the reviews. If you want, I'll send you an e-mail of what I put in the next PC that I build. Steer clear of the Pentium IV - too much fast cache memory was removed to save on silicon area. It underperforms the Pentium III on many applications, especially older ones that haven't been rewritten for it. The solution: Intel brought out the little blue men on TV to convince us otherwise. I've had good luck with Win2K not crashing very often. Seems to stay up even though the application dies (like any real operating system should.) Win98 was tolerable. WinMe was truly unstable - breath on it and it crashes. I erased it from the disk. AFAIK, 3Com bailed out of anything that looked like consumer electronics. Margins were too low.