Velocity Micro is set to become the first PC manufacturer to release a machine built around Intel’s dual-core Pentium processor. The DCX line, announced yesterday, will use the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 840, which runs at speeds of up to 4 Ghz, and will be available by the end of June.
The DCX will also feature Intel’s hyperthreading, which allows for parallel processing of tasks. The company did not release pricing.
Multi-Tasking Machine
Roger Kay, vice president of client computing, IDC, said systems combining the processor and hyperthreading can be very efficient multi-taskers.
“You have two virtual processors in a machine and then two cores, and then if you put two of those into the design, then you have eight,” he said, illustrating the exponential growth of tasks PCs would be able to do.
Velocity Micro, known as a builder of high-end computers for game enthusiasts, is not the only PC maker with plans for the dual-core Pentium. Dell said in February it would release its Dimension XPS gaming systems and Dell Precision workstations later this year.
Gamers and More
Dual-core designs are often associated with gamers because the simultaneous processing allows for smoother, richer graphics, but Kay said the machines have other uses.
“Some people feel, ‘I could always use more performance.’ Wall Street is a good example. They have news feeds, financial models, all kinds of things running. They always could use more performance; they’ve never had enough, it’s unlikely they’ll ever get enough,” he said.
Home users who create multi-media content or run several process-intense programs at once would also see a performance boost with a the dual-core system.
Velocity’s DCX line comprises Raptor DCX for gamers, the multimedia ProMagix DCX and the ProMagix W140 DCX workstation for digital media. In time, more software and peripherals will be designed to take advantage of dual-core’s strengths.
“The ecosystem has to fully catch up with the hardware,” Kay said. “Almost every application could be rewritten to have a multi-thread structure that would have it run better.”
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