I was at a local mall yesterday when I came across several desktop and laptop units running on Windows Vista. Although the sight was a bit common nowadays, I was still curious as to processors that were powering the units since the price tags did not seem to suggest that they were high-end ones.

True enough, they were merely Celerons! It’s quite a surprise considering that many touted Vista as a gas-guzzler. In fact, the first PCs that got the “Windows Vista Capable / Ready” seal have at least dual core processors in it.

Celeron chips were originally planned to be interred with XP. However, this cheaper alternative from Intel worked perfectly fine when it played the new Microsoft OS. Could it be that the chip’s maker injected some steroids to the processor which gave it extra strength to load and run Vista?

I’m not sure of Intel made some modifications to their low-end chip. However, I noticed that the manufacturer of the units which featured Celeron processors flooded their product with a least a gigabyte of RAM. Now we all know that adding more RAM to one’s PC is like getting a complete processor upgrade altogether. This news should give hope to those who want to jump to Vista but are quite apprehensive as to the capability of their hardware.

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A few weeks ago, I’ve written an entry regarding the dizzying pace at which chipmakers are churning out processors in their manufacturing plants. I lamented that many of those who bought the Core Duo model felt cheated when Intel released the Core 2 Duo unit in just a short span of time after it has introduced the former.

At the rate Intel and AMD are going, one might not help but wonder on how are we going to use or what are we going to do with all that computing muscle. The two chip-making giants have been injecting steroids in their products in order to meet the processing requirements of various applications, especially Windows Vista. However, many experts are now saying that Intel and AMD might have overshot the runway by about a mile and a half.

Wait for Me

There was a time when software manufacturers were constantly whining on how slow chipmakers are in developing a processor that could fully exploit or support the full potentials of the former’s products. Indeed, the computers back then seemed to be always inadequate. Intel and AMD can’t seem to satisfy the insatiable demands of programs, especially those which involve image or video editing, for more computing power.

Things have drastically changed since then. The lot of software authors and chipmakers has taken a 180-degree turn. It’s the application manufacturers’ turn now to do be the “it” in their game of tag with Intel and AMD. Processors have not only become faster, but it also developed multiple brain or cores.

Fitting Everything in One Package

A few years ago, Consumers and chipmakers were toying with the idea of putting two processors in one motherboard. The idea seemed plausible, although those who entertained the scheme were turned off by the thought of introducing PCs that are preposterously expensive due to the fact that it has two chips.

Advances in chip-making during the past 3 years have enabled Intel and AMD to assimilate 2 or more cores into just one chip. This proved to be more economical and viable than the 2-chip unit. Both manufacturers immediately embraced the idea.

We Can Only Use One

Software manufacturers hailed the developments in the chip-making industry. Sadly, they could not yet exploit the full potentials or capabilities of the dual or multiple core chips that are already available in the market. Many of the programs that are being sold today are not designed to take advantage of the multiple processing capabilities of the chips. Hence, the extra power of the CPU is wasted. It’s as if the computer is just running on a single core processor.

Rude Awakening

Program makers admit that they are lagging behind in the race. In the recently held Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles, software giants urged each other to come up with products that would be able flex every muscle of the computer. Even this year’s most talked-about application, Windows Vista, is not designed to make use of every core of multiple-brained chips. Microsoft’s Ty Carlson expressed the need for the next Windows to be able to fully utilize the number of processing cores that would be hailed or considered as the industry standard in the future or during the period when the new OS would be released.

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Just when it seems that Intel has already made the ultimate processor in Core 2 Duo, it raised the bar yet again when it recently unveiled its new line of microprocessors.

Intel will be using the 45nm manufacturing process for the dual and quad-core chips dubbed as “Penryn”. This new innovation will allow the leading chip-maker to reduce processor size while continuously pushing clock speeds up.

This news can be either good or bad. Of course this is positive news in general for the IT industry. The faster the processor, the more productive the user is. However, software developers will be designing their products in such a way that it will demand more from the new processors since the latter have something extra to give.

I don’t know if I’ll be changing my still reliable Pentium D desktop anytime soon. Even though programmers are now designing their products in such a way that it will only run smoothly when using at least a core duo processor, I still believe that many applications won’t be needing that amount of computing power. As long as you have at least 512 GB of RAM and constantly optimize your unit, you’ll feel that your Pentium IV or III is running on steroids.

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