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Originally posted by Exca
is the intel processor a dual processor or a dual core?
"Dual processor" is what happens when you have a motherboard with two processor sockets and two chips.
Dual (and sometimes even quad) processor systems are not new and have existed for decades. This, by the way, is why there is ready operating system support for SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) and you don't need to upgrade your OS. However, given the high cost and smaller benefit for desktop systems, which tend to do a smaller number of things at any one time, it used to be reserved for the server and high end workstation markets only.
"Dual core" is a single chip that contains two processing cores. Without getting into minor technicalities, a single dual core processor is about the same as a system using two single core processors. The single chip solution lowers the costs and Intel, AMD have resorted to that now because they have no choice -- they've pretty much reached the point where further increase of clock speeds (what they have been doing for years) isn't possible, nor is there much left to squeeze out from execution efficiency improvements.
