Dual Atom N270 Features:

• Computer programs and games are constantly improving and require more processing power than ever before. Running high demand applications with a dual CPU system can increase performance. When choosing a dual CPU system, there are two options--dual processors or dual core. Both options will increase performance over a single CPU; however, there are differences between the two.

History:

• Dual processor personal computers have been around since the early 2000s. Motherboards supporting dual processors for either AMD or Intel processors are not very common due to increased size and cost. A typical home computer only had a single processor. Workstations for graphics modeling and engineering are more likely to have a dual processor system. Dual core processors were first created in 2001 by IBM. IBM released their Power 4 processor for server applications. It was not until Intel released their Pentium Extreme Edition 840 that a dual core processor was available for home use
  
  
  

  Significance

  Dual core processors are the equivalent of two CPUs on one physical chip. Since most motherboards only support a single processor, dual core processors allowed the benefits of a dual processor machine at a much lower cost. In order to take advantage of a dual processor or dual core system, the operating system needs to know how to send information to both CPUs. Most home operating systems did not include this functionality and it was typically only found in server operating systems. The release of dual core processors pushed multi-core processing into wider acceptance and the operating systems were modified to allow for their use.

  Function

  Both dual core processors and dual processor systems are generally used to increase multi-tasking performance. With multiple CPUs, workload can be distributed between them or they can be used to perform separate tasks. Dual core processors and dual processor systems are generally treated the same by the operating system; however, dual core processors have an easier time sharing workload since they are on the same physical chip.

   

  Dual processor systems can consist of any pair of processors that the motherboard supports; however, both processors need to be of the same type and speed. Since dual core processors are a single chip, the types available are limited to the processors on the market. As of 2009, Intel has a number of dual-core processors including the Pentium D, Core Duo and Core 2 Duo lines, while AMD has dual core versions of its Athlon and Turion processors.
  Benefits 
• One of the biggest benefits of dual core and dual processor systems is the increased performance, especially when it comes to multi-tasking. Dual core processors have other advantages over dual processor as well. Dual core chips will use less power and take up less space than comparable dual processor systems. Dual core chips can be found in laptops and netbooks as well as desktops. Dual processor systems are typically only found in servers and some higher end desktops.

Definitions and architectural details

The dual processor

A traditional dual-processor system contains two separate physical computer processors in the same chassis. The two processors are usually located on the same circuit board (mother board) but occasionally will be located on separate circuit boards. In this case, each of the processors will reside in its own socket. A dual-processor (DP) system can also be considered a subset of the larger set of a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system. A multi-processor capable operating system can schedule two separate computer processes or two threads within a process to run simultaneously on these separate processors.

Figure 1. Dual-Processor system

Hyper-Threading Technology

Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) was developed by Intel Corporation to bring the simultaneous multi-threading approach to the Intel architecture. With HT Technology, two threads can execute on the same single processor core simultaneously in parallel rather than context switching between the threads. Scheduling two threads on the same physical processor core allows better use of the processors resources.

HT Technology is available on Intel Xeon processors Intel Atom Serires Mobile processors, and some Intel Pentium® 4 processors. HT Technology adds circuitry and functionality into a traditional processor to enable one physical processor to appear as two separate processors. Each processor is then referred to as a logical processor. The added circuitry enables the processor to maintain two separate architectural states and separate Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers (APIC) which provides multi-processor interrupt management and incorporates both static and dynamic symmetric interrupt distribution across all processors. The shared resources include items such as cache, registers, and execution units to execute two separate programs or two threads simultaneously. Requirements to enable HT Technology are system equipped with a processor with HT Technology, an OS that supports HT Technology and BIOS support to enable/disable HT Technology.

Portions of this explaination have been taken from eHow.com


Dual Atom Processors vs. Dual Core Atom Processor

In an effort to solve the lack of multi tasking ability of current netbooks, we entered the decision to consider two alternative configurations., the Dual Core processor or the use of Dual Processors.

BENCHMARK ATOM 330 FROM PC PRO

The original Atom has been at the heart of the huge shake-up in the laptop industry over the past year, with the vast majority of the big guns opting for Intel Atom N270 in their netbooks. It was thought that If the new dual-core model can live up to the hype it has the potential to trigger a whole new wave of more powerful netbooks.

Called the Intel Atom 330, it runs at the same 1.6GHz frequency as the single-core N270, with a 533MHz FSB. With two cores and support for Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology, it appears to the system as four cores (as shown right). Being a desktop part, it comes soldered to an improved mini-ITX motherboard, now with a single DDR2-667 slot, Gigabit Ethernet and six-channel audio to go with the usual array of inputs and outputs.

We used a 7,200rpm SATA hard disk and 1GB of DDR2 to get our test rig set up, slapping on a fresh XP SP3 install to best compare the Atom 330 to the existing netbooks that will make up its primary competition. After installing all the drivers and running Windows update we installed our benchmark suite and set it to work overnight.

Now, to set the scene, the single-core Atom N270s scored anything from 0.3 to 0.44 in our benchmarks – our current  The Atom 330 won’t be running at its quickest just yet, but we still expect a score in excess of that, and our multitasking test should show the largest margin of improvement. As an added contrast, we’ll also compare a VIA C7-D system, which recently scored 0.36. Now keep in mind, this test is run and compared with the Atom N270 in single configuration, not Dual.

The Results



The overall results are a little lower than we expected. (Note, all results are relative to our baseline Pentium D system, which scored 1.0). Yes, the Atom 330 is quicker than the single N270– no surprise there – but we expected it to be by more than 16%. The individual tests make for more interesting reading, though, and explain where the Atom really excels.



In our combination of Office 2003 tests it actually failed to match either the  Atom N270 or the VIA – this is clearly the result that’s bringing the overall average down, but despite repeated retests it consistently occurred.  More likely, it’s just the fact that Office 2003 is not a particularly processor-intensive benchmark, and doesn’t make efficient use of multiple threads.



By contrast, our 2D graphics tests comprise a variety of tasks in CorelDRAW, Photoshop and 3ds Max – tests which are ideally suited to multiple cores and Hyper-Threading. The Atom 330 dutifully comes into its own on this test, beating the N270 by 41% and the VIA by a whopping 71%.



For encoding we use dbPowerAmp and Canopus ProCoder to encode a variety of audio and video files simultaneously – a particularly intensive task. As you can see, here the Atom 330 merely edged it, by 18% over the N720 and 39% over the VIA.



Finally, our multitasking test runs all of the previous tests at once, a test of brute strength which low-power netbooks are simply not designed for. The fact that the Atom 330 scored 0.62, compared to the 1.0 of our baseline Pentium D system, demonstrates just how close today’s tiny netbooks may soon be getting to what was considered immensely powerful – and ran hotter than molten lava – just a few years ago.

Conclusion

All in all it’s a broadly impressive start for the Atom 330, performing best in the most processor-intensive tasks as you would expect. But the real question – and one we can’t answer until the netbook parts appear – is how that second core will impact on battery life. The quoted TDP of the Atom 330 is 8W, twice that of the Atom N270. It’s all well and good boosting the productivity of your netbook, particular with regard to running more than one application at once, but if the battery falls from seven hours to three or four as a result, the 330 might not quite make it to the must-have level of its N270 single-core predecessor.
However, Intel ha recently decided to restrict the use of the Dual core 330 processor from use in Netbook Comnputers due to the thermal issues associated with the processor and need for an internal cooling system.

Taking into account the overall poor performance of the Atom 330 Dualcore processor, we entered the decision to incorporate dual Atom N270 processors with a cooling system into our Swordfish Brand 10.2 inch Netbook. Benchamarks will be reported once finalized.


Data provided by PC Pro