What is a Dual Core Processor
For those of you who are new to computing and not familiar with computing lingo, the term dual core processor might be confusing. The aim of this article is to explain dual core and multicore computer processors in general.
A computer processor is the central processing unit of a computer. It is an integrated circuit made up of a silicon chip with billions of transistors etched on it at the nanometer (10-9 meter) scale. The speed of a processor is dependent on the number of transistors that can be etched on the silicon wafer.
This speed is measured in terms of the clocking frequency of the processor. In an effort to maximize the processing speed, manufacturers went on adding more transistors until they hit a 'heat limit'. The heat generated could not make the construction of a processor with higher number of transistors possible after a limit. That is when chip manufacturers came up with the idea of dual cores.
What is Dual Core Computer Processor?
A dual core processor is a computer chip with two cores or central processing units, etched on a single silicon wafer (also known as a die). It is the integration of two cores on a single chip to maximize the processing speed. The processor cache (read what is processor cache) and the bus circuits are etched on a single die, along with two complete processor cores. That is what makes a dual core chip. These processors can perform parallel execution of tasks, by sharing the workload.
Effectively, there is an increase in performance speed, due to the division of tasks between the two chips. Just as two capable chefs working together will prepare a meal faster compared to a single chef, a dual core works faster compared to a single core. Both AMD and Intel launched dual core chips some years ago; pioneering the era of multicore processing.
What is the Difference Between Single Core and Dual Core Processor?
The difference between single and dual cores lies in the number of processing cores. Being equipped with two complete processing units, instead of one, a dual core processor is faster than a single chip. It can handle two data streams simultaneously, compared to a single core processor which will handle only one. The two cores share their resources and thus perform better than a single core, while providing a higher clocking frequency.
So if you ask me how fast is a dual core processor, I will say that it is very fast compared to single core processors, with a higher clocking frequency. The examples of dual core chips are the Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Dual Core and Intel Core i3 and Intel Core i5 lines of processors. An example of a dual core AMD processor is AMD Athlon X2.
What is a Dual Core Processor Good For?
To be able to harness the power of dual cores, a computer operating system must be designed such that it can let the two cores work in parallel. The technology that can enable this parallelism is called 'Multithreading Technology'.
Most software programs including operating systems of today are designed with multithreading technology, which can allot two different processing 'threads', to each of the processor cores. Thus dual core processors are good for multitasking, as it can handle more workload simultaneously.
As mentioned before, a dual core processor is like a twin brain chip, which is better at multitasking. If you look at the Intel core i3 vs i5 vs i7 processor comparison, you will realize that today dual cores have been superseded by quad core processors, with the top end core i7 line sporting as many as six cores! It is the era of multicore processing, which has enabled laptop and desktop computers reach processing speeds, which only supercomputers were once capable of.
