Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Belisarius
You could have six processors, I believe, and it would work fine, but it wouldn't recognize past two. The question is, does Windows, technically, recognize dual cores as two processors, and, also technically, is that a maximum?
|
No, like I said, Windows is licensed on a "per-socket" basis. Windows XP Pro supports two "sockets".
That is, it sees dual-cores as two processors, but they are only 1 socket. So as far as Windows XP is concerned, if you have a Dual Core processor, to the kernel you have two processors to the licensing you have one.
So, Dual Dual-Core Opterons is OK with Windows XP. Four Single-Core Opterons and you'll need Win2k3. In terms of physical power, the Four Single-Core Opterons will be unquantifiably faster (e.g. they will be faster, but so marginally faster that it isn't even measurable. Bus overhead is where dual-cores can fare better than classical SMP systems, for all else separate processors generally wins out).
On a side note, it's important to note that RedHat, IBM, and others license on a per core basis (or did).