MP performnce
The reason is they share the same bus. If all is a perfect situation with a
shared bus you would get 1.5x performance improvment from second Pentium in a 2
Pentium system.
The secondary cache is also an issue, but Intel has suggested for higher
performance systems to have one cache for each processor. (As opposed to the
lower cost 2 Pentium, 1 cache approach.) I'm not sure if anyone has taken this
approach.
If you look into the future a bit to MP Pentium systems, P6 systems, etc. the
real performance platforms will be x2 and x4 architectures(multiply
processors). I think that since the performance is a very application dependent
issue, it is appropriate for Adesk to provide some numbers.
If benchmarks aren't available, the people who build the higher performance
(and higher cost) boxes won't be rewarded and we will all have to live with
mediocrity.
Steve.