[OS X TeX] multi cores

[George Gratzer]

I tried the i applications. iMovie, I gave it a 30 minute job. It uses 50-80% of one CPU and about 20% of the other. Added a Photoshop filtering; it used exclusively the under utilized processor. With a single processor, it would be very difficult to do anything while iMovie renders.

The i7 is a bargain, so much more power for little money.

I think that the next variant of many applications will utilize Grand Central and the multicores. Stuffit already does, it uses about 70-90% of all 8 cores.

GG

On 2009-12-13, at 5:26 AM, Josep Maria Font wrote:

> El 11/12/2009, a les 20:56, Peter Dyballa va escriure:
> 
>> Am 11.12.2009 um 18:25 schrieb George Gratzer:
>> 
>>> Curious. Of the 8 cores on my core i7, typesetting only uses 4.
>> 
>> Because TeXs not parallel.
> 
> According to Apple's Tech Specs page, for the 27" iMac there are, besides the Core 2 Duo processors, the following two processor configurations:
> 
> • 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.2GHz
> • 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.46GHz; Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores
> 
> So it seems both processors have 4 real cores, and only when the software is specially desgined they simulate 8 cores (and TeXShop doesn't; or is it TeX itself ?). I'm not sure I am interpreting things right, though.
> 
> Do you think there is no point (or no obvious advantage) in buying the i7 version ? I am trying to make up my mind beween the i5 and the i7 versions.
> 
> Thanks for any hint.
> 
> 
> JMaF
> 
> 
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