Multi-core CPU operation

Within the past two weeks or so, (I thought it was on Win7 Forum), a link to an article was posted that gave a simple understandable explanation of the operation of multi-core processors and how they handled data processing separately and together, etc. I need to pass this info on to a friend. Does anyone here recall this article or can you supply a location for this information? Google search was no help as what it showed was not as informative and complete. Thank you.

A multi core processor is nothing more than putting more cpu's into one package.

if a multicore cpu is rated at 2.4 GHz, every single core runs at 2.4 GHz.

If a game or app is multithreaded, it will be able to use more than one of those cores at a time.

Do not assume that the clockspeed of a quad core 2.4 GHz cpu is 4 x 2.4 GHz (9.6 GHz). Its just 2.4 GHz.

The cores in a multi core cpu cant magically share the load if a program is not multi threaded. they have to be explicitly told to do work, there is no such thing as reverse hyperthreading.

Windows itself will use lots and lots of threads, so even if a game isn't multi threaded, Windows will be able to use the extra cores.

x86 is an architecture basically invented by Intel about 20 years ago. It has been evolving since then. x64, or x86-64, is the x86 architecture with 64 bit extensions. both amd and intel make 64 bit cpu's.

Thanks for the explanation. That should help her understand what she has.

Thanks to both of you for the explanation and the website. Job well done!

Hope it helped you explain it to your friend!