[rotuts]

Hello
its never been clear to me how a software program takes advantage of more than one processor, be it dual ( as is G4dual) or the sometime comeing G5 multicore dual-duals ( 4 CPU) the last time i wrote a program was on punch cards. few remember them.

so a 4 cpu machine really doesn't due much for me If I don't have software that uses it?

StreamClip 1.3.1 now says it supports dual processors. in using it and checking on my activity monitor it uses 120% of a processor.

does that mean that all of one and part of the other? in a general sense how does it do that and does anyone have a reasonably simple reference where I can look into the problem? Im clearly not a programer.

My key programs ( for fun!) are streamclip and itele (for my HDTV card) and QTpro for the output from my alchemyDVR card.

currently I can't run both on my G4 as each movie related program wants too much CPU, making the alchemyDVR card suffer by droping real time frames.

so even if Apple made dual-duals right now and I could afford one, they might not really help me if the programs don't take advantage of them right?

this is not counting on the supposedly massive speed bump from G4dual1gz to G5dual 2gz. but that speed bump is only about 50% by some references to recompressing a QT file or imove or whatever video.

thanks for your insight and help.

rotut

[Chuckit]

The OS automatically load-balances multiple CPUs, so that if one if being used heavily and you launch another program, it will run on the other processor. A single program can make use of more than one CPU by splitting up its processing into threads.

And yes, 120% does mean it's split between processors, though I don't think it necessarily means it's using all of one and part of another (it's more likely using, say, half of one and 70 percent of the other).

[rotuts]

Chuck:

thanks thats an excellent reference just the sort of thing I can understand after a few espressos. but you can't imagine the days of punch cards, and I once wrote a program that was one full IBM box, and then quit .

but programs must make use of multi processors by design, ie streamclip 1.3.1 says now supports dual processors, as it didn't before.

can you make my G4dual run faster?
thanks rotuts