[clue-talk] new processors

[chris fedde]

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 7:25 AM, Louis Miller <miller106c at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>       Could someone send me a hyperlink to an article that would explain how
> it would be so much faster, please? Something for the non-computer
> scientist, if possible. Or if someone wants to explain it and can through
> e-mail that would be okay, too.
>

I realize that this is an older message but thought I'd respond and
expand on some other responses.

The 2.6 Linux kernels are written to take advantage of mult-core
architectures.  This means that typical single threaded applications
buy themselves will not see any speedup but since more than one time
slice can be run at once the over all system performance improves.

Here is a pointer to a white paper with excruciating detail:
http://www.silicon.com/white-papers/components/2009/12/24/multi-core-and-linux-kernel-60295311/