HP Vectra XU 6/XXX HP Vectra XU 6/XXX - Guide to Optimization Performance - Page 11

Additional Advantages of Dual Processing with your HP Vectra PC HP has proven experience in the successful design of dual processing PCs. Previous HP Vectra PCs have used the Pentium processor to bring MPS-compliant multiprocessing to desktop applications. Compared with the previous generation Pentium processor, the Pentium Pro offers an additional performance advantage when used in dual processing configurations: an integrated 256 KB level-two cache memory. Cache memory increases the performance of any processor by making copies of the most frequently used data and instructions available more quickly. The Pentium and Pentium Pro processors also provide integrated, level-one cache memories of smaller capacity. With the Pentium processor, level-two cache memory was external to the processor. This meant that accesses to this memory were performed over the local bus. In dual processing configurations, this memory was shared between the two processors. The Pentium Pro integrates level-two cache memory into the same package as the processor and is able to access this memory without using the local bus. This feature leads to these additional performance advantages when the Pentium Pro processor is used in dual processing configurations: • Because the level-two cache memory is integrated inside the processor, it can be accessed at the speed of the processor's internal clock and not at the speed of the slower, local bus clock. • Accesses to the level-two cache memory do not cause accesses over the local bus and thus do not risk slowing the operation of the other processor. • Since each Pentium Pro processor integrates a level-two cache memory, dual processing configurations provide two level-two cache memories. This doubles the overall capacity of level-two cache memory in your PC. Limitations If two Pentium Pro processors are installed, they will operate at the same clock speeds. MATCHING MEMORY CAPACITY TO YOUR REQUIREMENTS The HP Vectra XU PC is supplied with 16 MB of memory. This memory is sufficient to run any standard PC operating system. However, for certain applications, the performance of your PC will be improved by installing additional memory. Your PC's Memory Capacity The memory capacity of your PC has a very important influence on overall performance. Memory is your processor's workspace. If this workspace is too small, the processor's work will be slowed and this will affect the overall performance of your PC. Your HP Vectra PC has four banks for installing main memory. 16 MB of memory is supplied as standard (two 8 MB memory modules).