Many of us uses dual core or quad core processors. The reason being simple that they are better in terms of performance but I would like to point out that the potential of multi core CPUs are not being effectively utilized. The OS are smart enough to use them but we and our programs don’t have much control over their usage.
What is going on in cores?
Like you have a anti-virus scan running on your computer and then you start media player to play music. What happens is that OS assigns one core for anti-virus scan and other core is used for playing media player. If you start another process or application, then it is also assigned one of the existing cores like it happens in single core processors. This is called multi tasking as multiple cores are handling multiple applications. There are rarely any softwares that can run on both cores thus doubling up the speed of the computer as they are yet to be developed. Only Software Simulation is in implementation these days which is not able to tap its full power.
What is missing?
We don’t have any control on the choice that which core will be assigned to which applications and this might decrease the responsiveness of the computer. It doesn’t decrease the responsiveness always but sometimes it happens.
So What can you do?
You can use Process Lasso to manage which core is assigned to which application. I must tell you that if you are a newbie, then Process Lasso is not for you as it might confuse you. Even its help contain many technical terminologies but still if you want to give it a try, then go ahead.
You can take more control of managing the usage of cores by different applications which results in a more responsive environment, set priorities of different processes etc. There are also lots of other options that you can tweak for a more responsive and better working environment.
If you wish to read more about it, then read it on Techtree. Have your say in the comments.