Last week at that internal tech summit, the subject of desktop multicore computers came up. Marc Tremblay said “If it’s Windows, one of the cores could be running Norton Antivirus.” Everybody laughed. But today I was reading PC Magazine’s review of the new Dell XPS which has the first multicore Xeon, and found this: One of the complaints we’ve heard from readers is that “protection” programs, like Norton Internet Security, are useful for safeguarding their systems. but slow their computers to a crawl. Dual-core Hyper-Threaded processors, such as the Pentium EE 840, can help, improving your computing experience because the processor’s dual cores can process tasks simultaneously. While most of the system is “concentrating” on making sure your Internet or gaming experience is fulfilled in the foreground, the reserve power that the dual cores provide protects you in the background, running Norton or other antivirus or firewall programs. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
