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To: Dale J. who wrote (57449)	6/7/1998 10:36:00 PM
From: Steve Porter	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 186894

Dale, Well it always floors me how people seem to think that by adding more CPU's Application "x" will get faster. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of multi-processor systems, but there are a lot of issues under the hood that the general public doesn't understand. For example if you have complex matrix operations to perform, the last thing you want to do is think about how to cut it up into multiple threads so that you can use the other processors. MP is most valuable in situations such as: Servers which have many tasks running at once (i.e. Remote Access, Database Engine and a Web Server.. perfect for 4 CPUS) Multi-User Servers (read UNIX boxes with remote X-terms). For the average user (even a power user) MP is most likely a waste. Few CPU intesive apps are set up so that you get decent results from MP. Some have "token" multi-threading but there is often common computations that have to be performed before you split out into other threads.. and usually the common operations are the most expensive. (at least in CAD and simulation software). Steve