In
our early days, we learned that the processor is the brain of the computer! But
most people seem unaware of this when they have to buy a new computer. This is
probably because most of us weren't aware of everything going on around the
processor in terms of how it works and the factors that affect its efficiency.
For this reason, people end up buying a processor that does not meet their
long-term needs. Modern CPUs offer new features that affect performance
greatly, such as multi-core and multi-threads, but these techniques or
"terms" are not understood by those who are not specialized in the
field of computers, some processors contain the same number of cores and paths,
and others contain The number of paths is greater than the number of cores. In this
article, we will discuss the function of each of them, how they work, and how
you can determine what is right for you.
A simplified definition of processor cores
It
is the part responsible for processing data in the processor and is physical -
not programmatically - on the CPU. In the past, processors were not advanced
enough and came with only one core, so the processor was called Core at the
time, but soon technologies developed and we see on the scene now processors
With more than 64 cores! This multi-core helps a lot in multitasking, as each
core can perform a different task and complete the required work faster, but a
large number of cores leads to some problems such as high energy consumption
and high temperatures.
How do cores work in a processor?
Let's
agree that there are two types of processors: the first is a single-core
processor, and the second is a multi-core processor, and the way they work is
somewhat different, as single-core processors can only perform one task at the
same time. If you want to perform this task faster, you will have to increase
the frequency, but this will entail several problems such as high energy
consumption, which will lead to an increase in temperature, and then the
efficiency of the processor will decrease. And here comes the countries of
multi-core processors to solve this problem, as they divide large tasks into
several smaller tasks and distribute them to the available cores, which
increases the processing speed while the temperatures and energy consumption
remain in the normal situation, for example, multi-core processors can handle
things quickly, close to core processors. One, but with less power.
What are the threads in the processor?
We
can say that the paths are virtual cores, as we explained previously, the cores
are physically present on the central processor, while the paths are not
physically present and you cannot see them because they are originally a
“software technology” meaning that they are techniques that processor
manufacturers use Like Intel and AMD, these technologies allow the cores to
perform many tasks by sharing resources between them using many technologies,
the most famous of which is multithreading.
What is Multithreading and how does it work?
It
is a technology that allows the cores in the processor to obtain several paths
of things to implement, for example, when you open any program on your computer
that requires obtaining some information from the Internet first, during the
process of obtaining this information, a circle will appear in the middle of
the screen that wraps around itself for each informs you that There are things
that happen in the background until the program finishes obtaining the data,
here the program performs two functions in the background, namely, obtaining
data and displaying the loading circle in the middle of the screen. Here comes
the role of multipath technology, in the background there will be two paths to
transfer data to the kernel, the first downloads information from the Internet,
and the second displays the circle in the middle to run one by one until the
program opens - that simple!
The difference between the kernel and the path
In
case you are still not aware of the importance of the paths, let's imagine that
the processor is a human eating cake and the cake here is the data that the
nucleus is processing, and the nuclei will be the human mouth, and the hands
are two paths to transfer cakes from the table to the mouth, then the mouth
will be doing its work Eating all the time while the hands regulate the process
of getting the cake to the mouth so that the process of eating is more
efficient. The role of the path here is to feed the nucleus with data for
processing, and this means that the paths only organize the process of data
processing and increase the efficiency of this process instead of making things
messy and thus less efficient.
But
what is the benefit of the greater number of paths? Let us imagine, in our
previous example, that the person who eats this cake has only one hand to eat
with and the other to hold his phone, for example, and let us imagine that
there is another human being whose two hands are carrying cakes, which one will
eat a larger amount at the same time? The second is certainly because he is not
wasting time waiting for his hand to go and get another piece of cake from the
table, but instead, he eats the piece of cake in his other hand while the other
hand brings the piece of cake and so on and the process continues.
How to find out the number of cores and paths in your processor
If
you are about to buy a new processor and want to know the number of cores and
its lanes, all you have to do is look at the processor box and you will find
the phrase “4cores/4 ways multitask processing” which means that your processor
comes with 4 cores and 4 tracks. "4cores/8 ways multitask processing"
means that the processor comes with 4 cores and 8 threads.
And
if you want to know the number of cores and paths in your processor currently,
all you have to do is enter the Task Manager by pressing “Ctrl + Alt + Delete”
and choosing Task Manager, and a new window will open for you, go to the
Performance tab and you will find the word Cores, which indicates To the number
of cores and the word Logical processors that refer to the number of paths.
How to decide what is right for you
As
we explained earlier, there are two types of processors in the market, one in
which the number of paths is higher than the number of cores and the other in
which the number of paths is equal to the number of cores, and of course, there
is a difference in the nature of using each type and whichever is better for
you, so if you are building your assembly for the purpose of games, I advise
you to buy a processor that comes With the number of paths equal to the number
of cores, because games most of the time depend on the performance of one core
and did not benefit greatly from the many paths, but if your goal in buying
aggregation is to learn montage and Adobe programs in general, you should
definitely go with the higher number of paths because they are tasks that
require great processing for many the details.