Which charting/data software take advantage of dual processor systems? I have read where Realtick does; but they don't seem to be as reliable as they used to be. What about Esignal, IQfeed, Tradestation, etc? What about Excel?
QuoteTracker is multi-threaded and does take advantage of multiple processors. IQFeed stuff is multi-threaded as well, plus the main datafeed component runs as a separate process, so it can easily be split out to run on a separate processor by the OS.
They will automatically make use of dual processors simply because each one has at least two threads of execution - at a minimum, one to service the datafeed inflow and another for the charting. Quote.com uses a separate inprocess datafeed processing thread. eSignal and DTN use a separate datafeed process that uses interprocess communications to relay the data to other processes. I believe Tradestation also uses a separate collector process. In all of those cases, at the very least the charting software is running in one thread and the datafeed servicing is in another (either another thread in the same process or a completely different process) - hence they would each be able to run at the same time on their own processor. Most will use more than one thread both in the datafeed servicing code and the charting code. I just checked with a process monitor and the charting program I'm using currently has 8 threads going. Contrary to popular misconception, you don't have to program specifically for dual/multiple processor hardware - complex event driven software is commonly written using multiple threads and asychronous initiation/execution/completion handlers. Isn't a big deal for any decent programmer - biggest thing that blows up most programmers the first few times is a poor understanding of the inherent 3D flow of execution and so they screw up common data area access synchronization. But as long as you use the appropriate control mechanisms or self-synchronizing objects, it's a piece of cake.
Great news ... because I'll be upgrading one of my computers to a dual processor workstation and I need software that makes use of the second processor.