Pentium D(ream?) becomes a nightmare-Why?

When I was young, I used to think Why can't we have two processors in one package?We will get double performance and so much more!Come on Intel! put two of my favourite Pentium 4 processors together. Dream come true?!Thats when I heard about the new(in those days) Pentium D.What is it?TWO PENTIUM 4 CHIPS TOGETHER!The specs were designed to kill, I felt.

• 2.66-3.6 Ghz clock(x2!!)


• 800 Mhz FSB


• 2MB X 2MB L2 Cache


• Most importantly-64 BIT CAPABLE!!!

Why was it the ultimate failiure?Think of it like this-

The pentium D's 2 CPU's as two people A1 & A2

an application as person B

In those days,most applications were programmed to send commands to only one CPU.which means, our person B can give instructions to only person A1 OR A2, rendering the extra core(person) useless.In effect, person A2 will be taking a piggyback ride on A1 .A2 will not contribute anything at all,while A1 goes full throttle

By contrast, multithreaded apps will make both cores work at the same time.Simple terms- the app will give both A1& A2 something to do.

This happened also because the two CPUs were not on the same silicon die.To explain that-

now,lets take one person,(-ok,I know this sounds crazy and you cant do this for real unlike above,but this is the simplest way of saying it)who has two brains.The brains are the CPUs,or better the cores.This guy can handle single threaded apps much better,since he can utilise the two cores.

This twin core format comes in the form of Intel's next processor,my favourite-the Core2Duo.Right now, its one of the best consumer dual core CPUs in the market(after the dual core Core2 Extreme of course but thats mainly for gaming).It is good value too,for the performance it offers.

I hope you understood the concept.Now Gotta run,I have a science exam to catch up with.

See ya soon!