Quad Core
What is the Speed of Quad Core Processors?
I am looking at purchasing a quad core processor laptop. When I look at the details for the laptop it says the speed is only 2.1GHz. Does this mean that the total processor speed is 2.1Ghz or is that for each core for a total of 8.4GHz. Please Explain. Thanks.
A quad-core processor contains four cores on a single die, combine as independent cores. In your case, each core has a speed of 2.1 GHZ but the above doesn’t mean that you have a 8.4GHz speed.
Having a quad-core will result in performance improvements ONLY when the applications can take advantage of simultaneous multi-threading. Certain applications such as virtualization, databases, Java, video encoding, 3D graphics rendering, and file compression and encryption, works with multi-threading.
The quad-core gives you execution speed and efficiency, but the overall speed also depends on the amount of memory you have, the Hard Disk speed, the front side bus speed, the cache space among other things.
FYI: multi-threading creates an environment where a program is configured to allow processes to fork or split into two or more threads of execution, in plain English, threading is how a program divides its workload across multiple cores,
Intel® Quad Core Processors