What is Dual Core?

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http://live.pirillo.com/ - BigJohnMidland wants to know exactly what "dual core" means.

"Dual core" refers to the number of processing cores in the processor package. So, in essence, with a dual core processor you actually have two processors. The advantage is that you can get up to twice the processing power. If you do a lot of video editing, photo editing, or run many programs at one time you'll notice a significant increase in the responsiveness of your system.

Intel introduced their Dual-Core processors (marketed as "Core 2") back in 2005:

An Intel dual-core processor-based PC will enable new computing experiences as it delivers value by providing additional computing resources that expand the PC's capabilities in the form of higher throughput and simultaneous computing. Imagine that a dual-core processor is like a four-lane highway—it can handle up to twice as many cars as its two-lane predecessor without making each car drive twice as fast. Similarly, with an Intel dual-core processor-based PC, people can perform multiple tasks such as downloading music and gaming simultaneously.

AMD followed up with their 64-bit X2 Dual-Core systems:

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor puts the power of dual-core technology on the desktop. Dual-core processors contain two processing cores, residing on one chip, that perform calculations on two streams of data, thereby increasing efficiency and speed while running multiple programs and the new generation of multi-threaded software.

For the end-user this means a significant increase in response and performance when running multiple applications simultaneously. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor outperforms the highest-performing AMD Athlon 64 4000+ single-core processor on multi-tasking benchmarks by up to 30%.

Should you upgrade to a dual core processor? Well, they're quickly becoming the standard desktop processors of choice so you may not have a choice. In the future we'll even see quad and octo core processors become standard in many home machines.

What do you think?