is it possible to have more than two processors in a desktop?

[MrRealityman1]

is it possible to have more than two processors in a desktop? i know it's possibly to have a duel. but what about a tri or a quad?

 

[lavoisier]

As far as I know, there isn't any motherboard that support more than 2 processors for now. Even thou there is one, it's gonna be costly also..

 

[MrRealityman1]

tell me about it

 

[Christoph]

tell me about it

If you really need that kind of power, you can set up a Beowulf cluster, although I don't know what you'd use it for.

 

[JFettig]

xeon

sledgehamer

 

[Cluster]

Yes you can get more than 2 processors. But they are costly. Right now you can get 4-way & 8-way with intel processors. You can move upto bigger things like Alpha's or Sparc's but these are big bucks, anywhere from 10,000 to 5,000,000 bucks a system.

 

[futura2001]

Raid servers have upwards of 8 processors, but those are way to expensive to be of any major use to us.
Futura

 

[bigfoot]

Cluster's right, "you can get Alpha's or Sparc's but these are big bucks". I'v herd of using linux to performSMP network setup, and I have actually seen ane demonstrated by a class at my highschool, they had 12 Pentium Pro system all setup on a standard 10/100 swich with a thirteenth system acting as a terminal, it was pretty interesting seeing the benchmarks against the Pentium II systems back them, If I remember correctly, the linux system blew the PII sky high, The best thing was the 1.53GB of memory (which was HUGE at that time). Now if you are really looking for that kinda power, imagin 12 XP's or P3 Tualatin machines with a linux SMP setup, That would Rock but so would the power bill!!!

 

[Greg M]

To go more than dual with Intel, they have to be Xeons.

 

[minoukat]

for X86, the only one that has more than a dual mobo is Intel. Donno if Cyrix (lol ) has any dual or more, but AMD only has the dual mobos based on the MP and MPX (or whatever it's called) chipset, which only supports 2 CPUs. if you want more than 2 AMD CPUs, you'll have to wait for the Sledgehammer, which will be a 4-8 way platform. if you want them now, you'll have to go with the Xeons (and get a couple of new jobs to pay for the bills !)

 

[MrRealityman1]

whats the difference between the C-hammer and the S-hammer? Is there any good sites besides geek.com to check processor specs? i've looked but couldn't find any.

 

[donny_paycheck]

whats the difference between the C-hammer and the S-hammer? Is there any good sites besides geek.com to check processor specs? i've looked but couldn't find any.

Clawhammers will be analogous to XPs and Sledgehammers will be like MPs only capable of up to 8-way SMP. As for now, to reiterate what others have said, Intel is the only manufacturer that builds processors for more than a pair at once and Tyan is the only company to make a 4-way socket 603 (P4 Xeon) board as of yet.