RE: OS? Home, Media or Pro?

["jeff larson" <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> From: Sean Echevarria
>
> The second link makes the distinction between physical 
> processors and cores with the upshot being that XP home will 
> make use of both cores.

Right, the issue for XP Pro is that it supports "Symmetric
Multiprocessors"
(SMPs).  This is not the same thing as multiple-cores, though the
OS may display them the same way in the administration tools.  

SMPs have been around a long time and are basically special
motherboards that accept more than one processor chip and sometimes
duplicate supporting components like cache, memory, and disk
controllers.  Multiple cores (in home machines) are relatively recent, 
they effectively duplicate the CPU but share the same cache, memory,
and other components.  

SMPs have typically been available only in "server" class machines,
I have never seen one in a laptop.

Jeff