Um, we have a Dual 500 and I ran OSX on it, and I loved it. I love macs, I don't plan on ever getting a PC. I was just saying yes, there are Dual Pentium systems, they are graphics workstations not consumer models, and not only do they beat out macs in many areas (even the much slower clocked macs best them as well in some areas of course 
) but they are also much more expensive. It seems Apple's pricing scheme is more based on pro workstations, where it is now suprisingly often the least expensive machine but still competitive.
What I said about OSX's SMP is true. There is nothing magical about Unix that can just automatically divide up calculations in a program. The reason you see activity in both bars is because the tasks are threaded. Quartz and Quicktime I assume are threaded. Even if they aren't you'll notice that draggin g a window creates a huge spike in the CPU usage in CPU Monitor. If you are running another application, as I understand it all the UI graphics are being handled by Quartz. UI, file system and application tasks are automatically distributed among the CPUs, creating a huge boost in performance (I would not want to use OSX on a single CPU system).
But again as I understand it, for a rendering to be divided between the two processors for instance, the designers would have to implement something in the application code that could allow that task to be split up between the CPUs. It doesn't just send each individual calculation to alternating processors, all it can do is divide it into segments to have each CPU in, and this comes with overhead. Unix is just much more efficient than OS9 ever was.
Also, keep in mind that even when 'nothing else is running' there ARE other things going on in the system. Open up the process viewer and look at all the background processes. File sharing and networking, if enabled, will always be running in the background (you know even in OS9 when you'd try forcequitting something but you have file sharing enabled and you have to quit File Sharing Extension before closing your app?).
Anyway, Quartz I assume is threaded. And that was a particular feature of Giants: Citizen Kubato is that it took full advantage of MP, otherwise each 'process' in the Process Manager can only be distributed as a whole
) but they are also much more expensive. It seems Apple's pricing scheme is more based on pro workstations, where it is now suprisingly often the least expensive machine but still competitive.What I said about OSX's SMP is true. There is nothing magical about Unix that can just automatically divide up calculations in a program. The reason you see activity in both bars is because the tasks are threaded. Quartz and Quicktime I assume are threaded. Even if they aren't you'll notice that draggin g a window creates a huge spike in the CPU usage in CPU Monitor. If you are running another application, as I understand it all the UI graphics are being handled by Quartz. UI, file system and application tasks are automatically distributed among the CPUs, creating a huge boost in performance (I would not want to use OSX on a single CPU system).
But again as I understand it, for a rendering to be divided between the two processors for instance, the designers would have to implement something in the application code that could allow that task to be split up between the CPUs. It doesn't just send each individual calculation to alternating processors, all it can do is divide it into segments to have each CPU in, and this comes with overhead. Unix is just much more efficient than OS9 ever was.
Also, keep in mind that even when 'nothing else is running' there ARE other things going on in the system. Open up the process viewer and look at all the background processes. File sharing and networking, if enabled, will always be running in the background (you know even in OS9 when you'd try forcequitting something but you have file sharing enabled and you have to quit File Sharing Extension before closing your app?).
Anyway, Quartz I assume is threaded. And that was a particular feature of Giants: Citizen Kubato is that it took full advantage of MP, otherwise each 'process' in the Process Manager can only be distributed as a whole
