Author Topic: Cores vs CPUs and Windows support (Read 259 times)

Kev367th · « **on:** July 26, 2006, 03:09:26 PM »

Did some researching, as it stands at the moment -

All XP products can distinguish between a physical CPU and the number of cores it has.

Windows XP
Home - 1 CPU no limit on number of cores.
Prof - 2 CPU's no limit on number of cores.

Windows XP64
2 CPU's no limit on number of cores.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now it gets tricky.
Windows 2000 cannot tell the difference between a physical CPU and number of cores (no fix is planned), so -

Windows 2000
Prof - Maximum 2 cores.
Server - Maximum 4 cores
Advanced Server - Maximum 8 cores.

Notice I didn't say CPU's, because each core is treated as a seperate CPU by Windows 2000.

handy169 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 27, 2006, 06:35:38 AM »

i got a copy of windows XP data center.. i think it supports up to 64 CPU's

Kev367th · « **Reply #2 on:** July 27, 2006, 06:45:06 AM »

Yup.

With the AMD 4x4 and Intel Quad cores due out the end of the year people had been wondering about CPU support in Windows, so basically -

Single CPU dual core
XP Home
XP Pro
XP 64
Win 2000
Win 2000 Server
Win 2000 Advanced Server

Single CPU quad cores
XP Home
XP Pro
XP 64
Win 2000 Server
Win 2000 Advanced Server

Dual CPU with dual cores
XP Pro
XP 64
Win 2000 Server
Win 2000 Advanced Server

Dual CPU with quad cores
XP Pro
XP 64
Win 2000 Advanced Server

All Windows 2000 versions count each core as a physical CPU, and no fix is coming from Uncle Bill.

Eagler · « **Reply #3 on:** July 27, 2006, 06:47:18 AM »

it's all so confusing ...

what happened to the days when a dx486 66 with 4 meg of ram and a copy of wing commander made us all so happy

Kev367th · « **Reply #4 on:** July 27, 2006, 06:49:29 AM »

Went bye bye.

Then again what do you expect from a company whos founder once said -

"Why would anyone need more than 640kb of memory:.