Stas Kolenikov <[email protected]> asks,
> [...] in terms of parallelizing the workload, is one quad-core
> processor better with Stata/MP than two dual-cores?
It is hard to say, other than recognizing that many quad-core processors are
newer than their dual-core brethren and therefore may be faster and have
larger caches.
Processor architectures differ in many ways and these ways are not limited to
the difference between dual- and quad-core versions. Even so, we have not
found many consistent performance difference among processor architectures or
the multi-core vs. multi-processor computers. We see differences, they just
do not generalize across all commands or even across problem sizes.
Why? The differing use of fast, on-board cache memory is the main reason that
different architectures (given processor speed) perform differently, and as
problem size varies the effect of cache memory varies.
For a given number of cores or processors, our recommendation is that first
you get the fastest processors you can and that second you get processors with
the largest available on-board cache memory.
> My understanding is that for either configuration, I would need a
> four-thread MP license, and then for two-processor quad-core,
> 8-thread license.
That is right. Stata/MP licenses are based on the number of processor cores,
whether the cores are all on one processor or spread across many.
-- Vince
[email protected]
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