Introduction
Before talking about the advantages of dual core processor first one should know about what a dual core processor is actually. It can be defined as; a dual core processor in a computer has two separate cores of the processor on the same single die. The main difference in core to duo and dual core processor is that, in dual core processor each core has its separate cache. It is actually two microprocessors in one unit. As for as the availability is concerned, this type of central processing units are widely available from many manufacturers in the market. In modern days of technology, many other types of multi-core processors also have been developed. Other type of multi-core processors includes quad-core processors (four-cores), HEXA-core processors (six-cores), OCTA-core processors (eight-cores).
History
If we talk about single core processors which were used before the invention of dual core processor, the CPU usually fed with strings of instructions that it must execute in an order, and then the CPU selectively from those instructions store in the cache for quick retrieval and to enhance performance. When the data not present in the cache required to fetch, the CPU retrieved that data using the system bus from random access memory (RAM) or from storage devices like hard disk. Accessing these devices excessively slows down performance of the maximum speed that the CPU bus, RAM or storage device like hard disk drive will allow, which is far slower than the speed of the CPU.
Features
Talking about the advantages of dual core processor, it is very useful for those who look to boost their system's performance, computing power and its ability of multitasking. Dual core processor provides two completely separate processing cores instead of single core; each has its separate bus. There is a separate cache for each core. Due to separate cache, the operating system has sufficient enough resources to handle hectic tasks in parallel, which the performance of the processing unit and gives a boost to speed of the processing unit.
If you want to take the complete advantage of the dual core processor requires both the operating system and all the applications running on the computer must support an advance technology called thread-level parallelism. The technology, thread level parallelism is the essential and important part of the operating system, and the application that runs multiple threads simultaneously to do their tasks.
Benefits other than multithread application on dual core processor, one can still see benefits of dual-core processors. For example, if anyone has Microsoft Windows XP as operating system (which supports multithreading), you could have your Internet browser open along with a virus scanner running in the background, while using Windows Media Player to stream your favorite radio station and the dual-core processor will handle the multiple threads of these programs running simultaneously with an increase in performance and efficiency.
Tips and comments
The dual core processor has two cores but each core has its separate cache, which is not that effective in terms of performance optimization. The core to duo processor has same cache for it’s two cores. This is more effective than dual core processor.
