Intel^® Multi-core Technology
Intel multi-core architecture has a single Intel® processor package that contains two or more processor "execution cores," or computational engines. Multi-core processors allow you to complete today's computing tasks more efficiently and will enable entirely new computing experiences, and the benefits apply to server and client platforms, as well as the home and enterprise environments. Multi-core capability can enhance user experiences in multitasking environments, namely, where a number of foreground applications run concurrently with a number of background applications such as virus protection and security, wireless, management, compression, encryption and synchronization.

In the home, you can be downloading a music file while editing your digital photos and your virus protection software can continue running seamlessly in the background. In the office, you can run that productivity application while the IT department's management software and virus protection software continue running seamlessly in the background. In addition to these scenarios, multi-core computing enhances multitasking where separate processor cores are assigned to the different functions the user wants to run concurrently, as well as multiprocessing where multiple cores are working on portions of the same function.

The benefits

Home and business
A multitasking scenario can be as simple as a home user editing photos while recording a TV show through a digital video recorder while a child —in another room of the house—streams a music file from the same PC. In a business setting, users could increase their productivity by performing multiple tasks more efficiently, such as working on several office-related applications as the system runs virus software in the background. Keep reading for specific scenarios.

In the digital office
Multi-core processors hold the promise of continuing the enormous increases in computer performance seen over the last quarter century. What will this performance mean for office productivity? Graphic designers, for instance, can render images much more quickly on multi-core systems. The greater responsiveness of multi-core platforms translates into less waiting for everyone in the digital office. For people like stockbrokers this could literally mean dollars, as their computers enable more-informed investment decisions and faster trades.

In the digital home
The digital home, with ever-growing numbers of networked PC and consumer electronics devices, will increasingly depend on the multitasking capabilities of multi-core processors to handle the demands of orchestrating the different networked TVs, stereos, cameras, and other devices and appliances in the household. Multi-core is also taking gaming to a whole new level, and will also make multiparty gaming ubiquitous. Tomorrow's computers will be powerful enough to run multiparty gaming and collaboration on their own. No longer will games have to be housed in huge servers—they will be distributed across the Internet. That should enable greater proliferation and access, plus inspire new forms of games and collaboration.