Mobile Pentium 4, is it dual?

[ulaoulao]

Ok I'm not up on the technology these days. I have a loptop that supports the Mobile Pentium 4. My aim is to get it ready for dolphin. I know dolphin likes a dual core, so what is the Mobile Pentium 4 ? Here is a blurb about it.

Mobile Pentium 4 was the last generation of mobile microprocessors with NetBurst microarchitecure. The mobile microprocessors were based on two Intel Pentium 4 cores - Northwood and Prescott. The processors had either 512 KB (Northwood core) or 1 MB (Prescott core) level 2 cache, and 533 MHz Front side Bus. Some Northwood mobile CPUs and all Prescott processors included Hyper-Threading technology. Although these processors had the same power-saving features of Pentium 4-M microprocessors, power consumption of these CPUs was significantly higher than the one of Mobile Pentium 4-M processors. In fact, the power consumption of Prescott-based mobile Pentium 4 was so high, that it hardly could be considered a "mobile" processor.

So this line "The mobile microprocessors were based on two Intel Pentium 4 cores" kind dances around the idea its a dual core, anyone know if it is or not? I'm aiming for the "Mobile Intel Pentium 4, 3.06-GHz, 533-MHz" cpu as the laptop should support it. but I need to change to the board and would like a second opinion that its a dual processor.

[Zach]

No,

what they were saying was the design basis for the mobile P4 core, was based on the design of both the Northwood and Prescott core designs.

ala Chrysler K platform being used in many different models, but all similar to a degree

The dual-core generation came after the P4 as far as I know. Any "dual core" type function previous to this was implemented via SMP, with two physical CPU's on the board

Honestly, I'd just look for a newer laptop. Depending on what you want to spend, you can get a Core2Duo Laptop I am betting in the $700 range or less. Plus they have way better power management (or as one guy on a forum said, actually HAVE power management) and down the road if you throw a SSD drive into the mix to replace the HDD, you'll get some more battery life too and a good overall performance boost, based on what I remember of laptop drives as a whole.

Only concern with dolphin is.. Aren't you still gonna need a GPU? I know laptops are slowly getting "passable" mobile GPU options, but I kind of doubt your aging machine has anything decent, and even when replacing the board I am guessing a decent GPU is gonna add to the cost?

In this case its simply better to get a brand new one. You'll be so much better off for it. Sell your old one and put the money towards the purchase.

[ulaoulao]

You have all good points and info . but this laptop was free and I dont have 700 ..

It has a nvidia on the amd board and an ati on the intel board, both are fine for dolphin.But from what you said it may not be enough cpu power.