![]() ![]() ![]() By this stage many musicians were straining at the leash, wanting to run more and more plug-ins and software instruments, and this Professional version let them do exactly that, using dual-processor motherboards and twin Xeon or Pentium 4 processors. In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP in Home and Professional versions, and once again most consumers who opted for the Home version were limited to a single physical processor, although the Professional version supported two. Many audio developers and interface manufacturers didn't actively support Windows 2000, so most musicians stuck with Windows 98. However, at this early stage each processor was a physically separate device, so to be able to (for instance) use twin processors, you needed a specially designed motherboard with two CPU sockets. It was Windows NT and then Windows 2000 that introduced us to the benefits of being able to share the processing load between multiple CPUs: Windows 2000 Professional supported one or two processor chips, while the more expensive Server version supported up to four, and the Advanced Server up to eight. In the days when most musicians ran Windows 95, 98 or ME, the question of running multiple processors didn't arise, because none of these operating systems supported more than a single CPU. #CPU FOR AUDIO PRODUCTION PC#This month PC Musician investigates which audio software works with dual-core, quad-core PCs and beyond, what benefits you're likely to get in practice over a single-core machine, and which software may for ever languish in the doldrums. Some existing software may only be able to use two of them, reducing potential performance by a huge 50 percent, while older software may only be able to utilise a single core, reducing potential performance to just 25 percent of the total available. Competitive pricing has already ensured a healthy take-up of DAWs based around a quad-core CPU, yet many users haven't cottoned onto the fact that not all software benefits from all these cores. Over the last couple of years, the PC musician has been offered first dual-core processors, then quad-core models, and octo-core machines (currently featuring two quad-core processors) are now available for those with deep enough pockets. ![]() Some music applications will completely fail to take advantage of the multiple cores of a modern CPU - but which ones, and why? We find out, and advise on how you can make best use of however many cores your PC has. ![]()
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