Thx to VIA, dual P4 ( non-XEON ) may be available...

BBA · January 29th, 2002, 01:21 PM

They have gone ahead with the P4x333, which supports and is designed for SMP on P4, not necessarily only XEONS ( as the rumour has it.

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Source: http://www.theddrzone.com/news.asp?id=459

MrBlues · February 23rd, 2002, 10:53 AM

That's interesting. I don't know what I would do with more than one processor for home use.

NDC · February 23rd, 2002, 11:00 AM

That would depend on how you use your home system... If you do intensive multi-tasking, video editing, image editing, etc., you can really take advantage of SMP systems since most programs in this area support SMP. But if you primarily browse the net, play games, OA programs, etc., SMP's would be a waste of money in my opinion... As for me, I love SMP systems... Never could I go back to a single processor system again...

Ultima · February 23rd, 2002, 11:07 AM

I would love to have a dual MP1800+ in my rig, but I wouldn't know what to use it for, except for DC, and that isn't enough reason for me to get it.

I can get my hands on various components for dirt cheap, but the MP cpu ain't one of em, XP's and Tbirds are.

Hey, normal Tbirds can run dual, can't they?? Hmm, maybe a dual Tbird 1.4Ghz??? I'd have to think about what it would cost me, when not buying in store, at least some parts that is.

Naahhh, I don't need a dually, so I won't get one.

Ultima

NDC · February 23rd, 2002, 11:12 AM

That's a good question... I wonder if T-Birds can run dual. I've heard some people say they can some say they can't. Anyone know for sure? If it's possible, I'd go pick up as AMD dual board tomorrow! It's tbuying the two new processors that's holding me back... Too hard on the wallet!

MrBlues · February 23rd, 2002, 11:39 AM

I don't know for sure, but the way I understand it, the MP cpu's have the logic for sharing the memory and signaling that the non-MP chips.

Orbiter · March 13th, 2002, 03:52 PM

It appears that older versions of the XP processor are SMP capable, but perhaps recently AMD has disabled this ability. Check out this thread at 2cpu.com:

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?threadid=16246

Apparently a bunch of the guys over there run dual XP systems, but this might not be possible for much longer.

Paranoid · February 28th, 2003, 07:15 AM

Is there anyone that knows how long that via is with there Dual Socket478 board... It seems like that i only can find news about it, but no reel fact... Is there any place where i can find some hard fact..???

**RobRich** · March 2nd, 2003, 07:39 AM

The support would be a question of whether the processor supports APIC, not just the chipset. Older P4 desktop models (non-Xeon) do not, through the latest generation of consumer P4s does have the APIC cpuid flag set to enable if memory serves me correctly.

Anyrate, news about this has been floating around for several months now. I would say that VIA would be looking for a Q3 or Q4 roll out of such a SMP chipset to best correspond with Intel marketing strageties, assuming such a VIA chipset actually exists outside the labs. Remember, VIA and others worked on OpenPIC boards back in the day for non-Intel socket 7 platforms, but none ever realized any production outside of a few test lab models.

raidzero · April 28th, 2003, 12:46 AM

Quote:

But if you primarily browse the net, play games, OA programs, etc., SMP's would be a waste of money in my opinion

Internet Explorer is multithreaded IIRC. So browsing actually would be faster. Also take a look at your task manager. If you have more than one process running actively or even periodically, a 2nd processor will automatically help out with that.

One thing I've noticed with SMP is the OS was very responsive, and I had greater stability since no application monopolized both CPU's.

Dual P4 non-Xeon's would be nice; Xeon's aren't cheap (nor really necessary for non-servers).