A thread is a sequence of things which are done in order - the way most "traditional" programs operate. A thread executes its program code statement by statement, in the way we all expect it to. However, if a system has many threads running, one thread may be suspended and execution switched to another. Eventually (we hope), the original thread will be resumed. From the viewpoint of the thread, nothing has changed - it resumes execution exactly at the point it stopped. A program which splits up into several threads is said to be multi-threading. All the threads are working on the same task - doing whatever it is the program is designed to do. Well designed GUI programs (for systems such as Windows, MacOS and X-Windows) are multi-threading. If redrawing the screen takes a long time, they will process mouse and keyboard operations in mid-draw, resuming or restarting the drawing process when they have finished processing the input.
Here are two key points from the Hyper-Threading article: "HT will not offer noticeable performance gains, however, for non-computationally intensive applications, such as spreadsheets, word processing, or e-mails, which represent the vast majority of applications used by the average Joe consumer. In short, applications will not see performance gains until the HT processor is pushed hard and the application in use employs multiple threads." ---------------- "The maximum 25% improvement in performance will be measured by standard benchmarks, such as frames/ second for graphics applications." With that said, there are additional ways to enhance even that speed which involve multiple processors and more functional video cards. But without special program instructions/operations considerations from the software vendor arena, not much will be evident to the average user.
I've been thinking about a new computer to help with the demands that TS puts on my current box. I was thinking of going with a dual cpu. Does TS support multi-threading? Anyone?
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12289&highlight=multithreading Interesting thread on multithreading.
FYI ..... We have a variety of hardware and OS combinations running. On dual processor Intel boxes that support "hyperthreading" technology the gains that we see are largely with floating point operations. For our specialized applications this type of gain is important. The average user would probably not get enough value for the price premium and could get away with older technology processors coupled with more memory.
so you guys don't think HT would be useful in a trading environment, running multiple charting packages, brokerage platforms etc. ?
FPU is there for a reason .... Here I am referring to this portion of the processor package. If we explicitely ask for it we see the greatest enhancements in this area ....