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Computer Science  Applications of the Intel   as scientific simulations, financial
           Hyperthreading (HT) include;
                                                     modeling, Medical imaging processing
                                                     and Virtualization environments
           (a)  Web browsers can handle multiple
               downloads and page rendering
                                                     While Intel Hyperthreading and IBM
               concurrently.
          FOR ONLINE READING ONLY
           (b)  Video editing software can encode
                                                     not limited to them. AMD Processors like
               video while simultaneously            Power 5 are prominent examples, SMT is
               previewing the edited content.        the Ryzen series also incorporate SMT
           (c)  Office applications can perform      technology under the name “Simultaneous
               multiple tasks (e.g., spell check,    Multithreading.” Many ARM processors
               formatting) in parallel.              for mobile devices and embedded systems
                                                     utilize SMT for improved performance.
           (b) IBM Power 5 with SMT
           Building upon the success of the          The future of SMT: As processor core
           PowerPC architecture,  IBM’s Power 5      counts continue to increase, SMT remains
           processor incorporated SMT support in     a relevant technology for  squeezing
           2004. While offering SMT capabilities,    additional performance out of individual
           the Power 5 went further with additional   cores. It offers a balance between adding
           improvements:                             more physical cores (which can be
            (a)  Increased cache sizes: Larger L1 and   expensive) and maximizing the utilization
                L2 cache sizes allowed for more data   of existing resources within a core.
                to be readily available for threads,
                reducing memory access delays.       Multithreading vs. Multiprocessing
            (b)  Separate  instruction  prefetch  Multithreading allows a single processor
                units: Each SMT thread received  to execute multiple threads concurrently
                its own instruction prefetch unit,  within a single process. Threads share the
                improving the efficiency of fetching  same  memory space  but have  separate
                instructions ahead of time.          stacks and registers. It is like having
            (c)  Increased issue queues: The processor  multiple cooks (threads) working in the
                could hold and potentially execute  same kitchen (process) using the same
                more instructions out of order, further  ingredients (memory) but with their own
                enhancing parallelism.               tools (registers and stacks).
            (d)  Larger virtual register File:  The
                number of virtual registers accessible  Multiprocessing  utilizes  multiple
                to each thread was expanded,         processors to run multiple processes
                providing more flexibility for  simultaneously. Each process has its own
                complex programs.                    memory  space  and  resources. It’s  like
                                                     having multiple kitchens (processes) with
           The Power 5 with SMT targeted high-       separate ingredients (memory) and cooks
           performance  computing  tasks  such       (processors) working independently.

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     Computer Science Form 5.indd   114                                                     23/07/2024   12:33
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