Terremoto -Earthshaking News, Views, Spews and Idle Musings

While a lot of hardware junkies may be lusting over a shiny new dual-core Pentium machine from Alienware or Dell it could soon be the requirement for workstations running MS Windows. For the technically inclined the imagination conjures up all manner of use for the second core. How about processing that flight data from your recent rocket launch or maybe even compute winning lottery numbers while you're working on your doctoral thesis. These are valid reasons to purchase one of these hot-rod wonders but to require one for running all the system utilities that keep your Windows box free of vermin sounds too much like the wrong reason. But..., that's exactly what PCMag suggests in their recent review of the Dell XPS Gen5.

As PCMag so nochalantly puts it, "One of the complaints we've heard from readers is that "protection" programs, like Norton Internet Security, are useful for safeguarding their systems. but slow their computers to a crawl. Dual-core Hyper-Threaded processors, such as the Pentium EE 840, can help, improving your computing experience because the processor's dual cores can process tasks simultaneously. While most of the system is "concentrating" on making sure your Internet or gaming experience is fulfilled in the foreground, the reserve power that the dual cores provide protects you in the background, running Norton or other antivirus or firewall programs."

Anyhow..., until I make a whole lot more money than I'm making off of this site the best I'm ever going to be able to hope for is an aging dual Alpha EV68/1.0 Ghz number cruncher. That would still be way more than what I would require to do what it is I do. Curiously enough, when Windows NT ran on dual processor Alphas one processor handled nothing but the GUI.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be 'perfectly good dual Alpha nugget' picked up at government auction for a song.