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- Thread starter Steve Mobs
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deconstruct60: your examples of turbo boost seem somewhat off. You refer to a singular program running one at a time, and indicate that the single program running will enable a turbo boost situation. I hope that you aren't forgetting that this boost won't happen to multicore applications, even if it is the only program running..
Just to clear the confusion
if there is any.
deconstruct60: your examples of turbo boost seem somewhat off. You refer to a singular program running one at a time, and indicate that the single program running will enable a turbo boost situation. I hope that you aren't forgetting that this boost won't happen to multicore applications, even if it is the only program running..
Just to clear the confusion
if there is any.
I don't think there will be an update tomorrow, cuz it would have been on the main page by now.
It'll probably be next week, or the week after! Don't worry, it'll be here sooooooooooon
It'll probably be next week, or the week after! Don't worry, it'll be here sooooooooooon
wow this is kind of stupid logic....if there is an update tomorrow...and it was on the main page today...wouldn't that be an update today? seriously dude
Its not really a stupid logic because all the sites that have heard it may come tomorrow are in the US, and the US only just ticked over to today(tuesday) so itd be smart for the websites to update at 12:00am for them, which is like now for us...
Sorry but just about everyone else here knows from Apple history that they tend to update the website late in the morning PST. If we don't see any changes by noon PST you can assume it probably won't happen.
Its not really a stupid logic because all the sites that have heard it may come tomorrow are in the US, and the US only just ticked over to today(tuesday) so itd be smart for the websites to update at 12:00am for them, which is like now for us...
Apple ALWAYS does refreshes between 4-8AM Cupertino time.
There are extremely few explicit multicore applications where the application specifically targets multiple cores. There are multithreaded applications, where the application spawns off more than one thread. However, having multiple threads doesn't necessarily mean need multiple cores. With a timeslicing OS can time slice the threads on same core. That worked insanely well while single cores were the norm on personal computers. Even more so when the core supports Symmetric Multi Threading SMT (or Hyperthreads in intel marketing speak). To run something like MS Word don't need to consume a 1.5GHz processor, let alone a 2-2.5 GHz one. One of the primary reasons why SMT typically works is because many programs are not fully leveraging the cores/CPUs.
However, yes if your single program manages to spawns off a monster multithread load that the OS expands over multiple cores, turbo boost will also turn off. I think that is a corner case, not really an illustrative example if have general question about the utility.
Of course this is purely speculative, but if the CPU in Apple's new iPad is any indication (A4) watch how Apple makes Wall Street headlines with a completely new line of mobile proprietary chips A5, A6, A7 anyone?
You think they make faster cpu's than Intel?
im not sure how to check if a certain application is multithreaded. do you know how to check? do you know if apples software products (i.e. safari, osx in general, iLife, FCP, etc.) contain any multithreaded apps?
i was referring to the fact that an application may use multiple cores, not multiple threads - however having multiple threads would indicate that it can support multiple cores, but not always
does GCD play a role in changing any of this? or is a single threaded/core app still a single threaded/core app no matter what, even with GCD (the app itself would be single core compliant of course, but the use of GCD might change its performance to that of a multithreaded/core app).
i still have a lot to learn, be nice on me. i have lots of questions hehe.
activity monitor gives no indication of the thread capabilities of an application. it tells you whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit, but not much else.
A4 -- ARM based chip
Macintoshes -- x86-64 based chip
The A4 ( and follow ons) have nothing to do with the classic Laptops.
It is unlikely Apple will ever announce more than one of the A4, A5, A6 chips at a time. The A4 will get used across the lower two product lines (iPad , iPhone/Touch ). Next the A5 will get used across the those two. Then the A6 will gt used across those two. etc. etc.
It would be extremely difficult for them to get enough volume to pay for the development of these if split the usage by rolling out more than one and then not using across the entire line over time.
Putting aside power consumption, even the lowly i3 that some folks are blowing off here blows the doors off the A4 in terms of heavy load performance.
like i said a few posts up, that doesnt indicate that its multicore capable. all applications have multiple threads. but there is nothing that says that those threads can execute on separate cores or processors.
edit: ahh i see you edited. haha.
Sorry about that. I was a little lazy to include your previous statement, and then i realized it was best to include it.
no problem. i would just like to see if anybody can point out to me how to tell if an application works on multiple cores and can run multiple threads across those cores.
e.g. if i run a youtube vid in safari, it will use multiple cores (and threads if your computer has them) - but does that mean that its multicored only, and not multithreaded, or does it have to be both?
thats the kind of thing im talking about. the fact that the youtube process is using up 2 cores would indicate that its multi-cored (and most likely multithreaded).
that contradicts what deconstruct60 said, which was that multicored applications are rare. if flash is multicore, then surely more then a few would be!.
you would think so, however it isnt necessary for an application to be multicore just because a plug-in is multicore-AFAIK.
Go to the Utilities folder in Applications ( shortcut in Finder Go -> Utilities ) and start 'Activity Monitor' . Threads is one of the attrbutes of the processes shown on that initial display.
I've got SeaMonkey running and it has 8 threads. Really don't need a mega processor to run a web browser. Got multiple tabs and a few plug-ins running.
i was referring to the fact that an application may use multiple cores, not multiple threads - however having multiple threads would indicate that it can support multiple cores, but not always
The application really should be oblivious to how it is being spread out (or not) across cores. That's not its job. If the OS just randomly distributes the threads then most likely it won't turn on ( for long periods of time).
Not really a change. GCD is an approach where the OS has a better idea of how to spawn off work , or put threads to sleep or "deallocate them". In some cases might actually drop the number of threads in flight because the user usage patterns informs GCD that not really doing anything so don't allocate "too many" threads to the application. Previous to GCD applications might guess at an appropriate number of threads and just spawn them all off.
The GCD approach is to do that more in a "Just in time" (when you need them) and to let the OS figure out where to allocate them.
However, yes if folks can find lots of things that can be done in parallel there is a potential the GCD will spawn that off onto multiple cores. Building multi-threaded apps tends to create many opportunities to shoot yourself in the foot. GCD is a framework that allows folks to do build more multithreading with, if you follow the rules, less shooting yourself in the foot. Folks where building multithread applications before it arrived though.