With Windows, Microsoft considers license per cpu package rather than cores.  XP Pro supports 2 cpus and they can comprise of any number of cores, likewise Home supports 1 cpu but that can also comprise of any number of cores.  It a sensible stance from MS, people feared it would be based upon cores and thus either have one disabled or have to pay MS some Ã,£ to unlock the unused core.

Quote from: Norphy

Quote from: Mongooseinteresting. But doesnt WinXP Pro top out at 2 way SMP? what operating system do you need to be running to use one of these things?

XP Pro will support up to two physical processors. It doesnt matter if that processor has two, four or eight cores, it will still support all of them.

If you install XP Pro on a dual core, dual Xeon machine it will still use all four cores.

Interesting, thanks for clearing that up Norphy

quad core.. what are you going to run on it? XP Pro is only licensed for 2 processors and as they will show up as 4 is it going to work?

EDIT: Doh! should have read the rest of the thread  :whoops: