XP Home supports Quad Core!

[DR]

One of the key differences between XP Home Edition and Xp Pro was that XP home wouldn't support 4 CPUs - of course at the itme this wasn't a concern, but now with us being on the dawn of Quad core this may well raise a question.

[chuckskull]

XP supports as many cores as you can find. Just only one socket. IIRC

[DR]

Nope - XP Home was supposed to support Dual CPUs - nothing more - XP Pro gives the edge.

However, Microsofts software stack accepts this.

[nichomach]

Incorrect; XP Home is limited to single CPU support. XP Pro supports two processors. Microsoft, however made the decision that CPU support was by socket, not by core, something that extends across their product line from XP Home through Windows Server 2003 to SQL Server etc.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...choosing2.mspx

http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://downlo...=1&CS=AWP&SR=1

[chuckskull]

I thought it was by number of sockets. not been lucky/rich enough to play with multiple processors in a long time though

[kalniel]

Just as they decided that the 800 series was just 'one CPU' I'm sure they'll do the same for kentsfield. The aim after all is to say that they produce the most powerful CPU

[chuckskull]

Theres been a few engineering sample kentsfields around for a while, no-one has reported any problems.

[DR]

Theres been a few engineering sample kentsfields around for a while, no-one has reported any problems.

People who have ES Kentsfields won't be running XP Home O

[DR]

Incorrect; XP Home is limited to single CPU support. XP Pro supports two processors. Microsoft, however made the decision that CPU support was by socket, not by core, something that extends across their product line from XP Home through Windows Server 2003 to SQL Server etc.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...choosing2.mspx

http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://downlo...=1&CS=AWP&SR=1

Yep but this is effectively 2 Dual Core parts bolted together, and again no one knew how it would react, anyway its just a simple news story

I thought it was by number of sockets. not been lucky/rich enough to play with multiple processors in a long time though

Yes but this is the first Quad Core Part - so people were uncertain how MS OS will detect and react

[TheAnimus]

I've been a strong advocate for dualies for enthusiasts since my farthers dual PII-350, it consitantly kicked the arse of my AMD 800mhz.

I spoke to an MS contact about this a little more than 2 years ago now, and was told that the offical line was to allow home users hyperthreading and similar price bracket parralleism, easyest way is to license per socket. quite sensible at the time, but now seams a tad unfair

[freakeystyley34]

People who have ES Kentsfields won't be running XP Home O

Agreed, if they can afford es kentsfields they're hardly not gonna be able to afford the extra for pro!

[Steve B]

they quite possibly wont even be running xp pro. Just a totally stripped down version, allowing them to suicide boot their LN2 cooled pc in a minimal amount of time.