The future of parallel processing & apps

[picture_perfect]

after the gigahertz barrier forced cpu manufacturers to look at parallel processing (multiple cores) as a way to keep up with moore's law i think something has changed. unlike clock upgrades, parallel processing is only utilized by applications optimized for it and older apps no longer see a benefit.

the question is this: is progress (now defined as ever-increasing core counts) practical if applications must hit this ever moving target of increasing core counts. how many apps are dual-core or quad-core even now. how many programmers even know what to do with the extra cores - which brings up another point; does parallel processing allow performance increases similar to higher clock speeds.
i'm noob, so what do you think.

 

[Upendra09]

programmers can just wirte a simple program to seek out any extra resources in a CPU or computer and use it

the program doesn't have to be specifically coded for 2 cores or 4

a multi threaded app will work the same way in a quad core as a hexacore it's just the hexacore cpu will win cuz it has more "brains"

 

[warmon6]

after the gigahertz barrier forced cpu manufacturers to look at parallel processing (multiple cores) as a way to keep up with moore's law i think something has changed. unlike clock upgrades, parallel processing is only utilized by applications optimized for it and older apps no longer see a benefit.

the question is this: is progress (now defined as ever-increasing core counts) practical if applications must hit this ever moving target of increasing core counts. how many apps are dual-core or quad-core even now. how many programmers even know what to do with the extra cores - which brings up another point; does parallel processing allow performance increases similar to higher clock speeds.
i'm noob, so what do you think.

Well, were to being.

is progress (now defined as ever-increasing core counts) practical if applications must hit this ever moving target of increasing core counts.

Well To most people it is. With multiple cores, means you can do multiple things. Also, People that do things like rendering, there programs always benefit from more threads/core.

how many apps are dual-core or quad-core even now.

Well, today most apps that are made are built on using dual cores. Quads are still slacking but programs will sooner or later programs will use them to the fullest.

how many programmers even know what to do with the extra cores

Well, if they dont program for the extra cores. then those core sit idle letting other programs use them.

which brings up another point; does parallel processing allow performance increases similar to higher clock speeds.

You bet. as people that do rendering will tell you, more cores + high Ghz will get the job quicker.


Now there on trick that Intel currently doing (AMD looking to get there own version of it) is call turbo boost.

What this does is, apps that dont use extra cores (like single core apps on a quad core) will get a speed boost. how turbo boost does this is by turning off the cores not needed and increase the core(s) that is needed.


Example: core i7 860 (2.8 GHz) Turbo boost modes.

when 4 and 3 cores are needed will run at 2.9 GHz

when only 2 cores are needed, it will at 3.3 GHz

When only 1 core is needed, it will run at 3.46.

 

[WR]

Some tasks just aren't efficient to parallelize, so some people won't ever need high core counts. Do realize that individual core speed has been inching higher over time. Specifically look at the turbo speeds on the i7/i5's.

 

[picture_perfect]

programmers can just wirte a simple program to seek out any extra resources in a CPU or computer and use it

the program doesn't have to be specifically coded for 2 cores or 4

this i was wondering because it doesn't seem to be the case so far. few games for example utilize quad core (i know one) and as a consequence perormance has not increased over ramped-up dual/single single cores.

 

[picture_perfect]

Well, today most apps that are made are built on using dual cores. Quads are still slacking but programs will sooner or later programs will use them to the fullest.

and when they catch up, 8 cores or 10 will be standard. will those programs already be old news, or will they take advantage of the current architecture of the time. will they be stuck in the past

 

[warmon6]

and when they catch up, 8 cores or 10 will be standard. will those programs already be old news, or will they take advantage of the current architecture of the time. will they be stuck in the past

yep, thats how it will go. just like how it was back in the 90's with the MHz.

 

[welshmousepk]

i see you pretty much have your answer here.

something of note though is that as the operating system gets more advanced, it will essentially be able to force any program to run on multiple cores. W7 does this now, but only to a small extent. it can break up any task being processed on one core, and spread it across the others. its not as efficient as a program that is coded to use all available resources, but it will help older programs to scale
with more cores.
by the time W8 gets here, and we have 8 core and up CPUs, even older programs from the single core days will perform vastly better, clock for clock, than they did on their single core counterparts.