st: Stata/MP licenses for the number of threads or cores on modern CPUs?

[László Sándor <sandorl@gmail.com>]

Hi,

The Stata/MP hardware advisory says "Be aware of the term
“hyperthreaded”, however. Stata/MP runs faster on hyperthreaded
processors, but not as fast as it would if you had full cores instead
of hyperthreads. Computers with multiple hyperthreaded processors are
suitable for Stata/MP. The number of real processors is the critical
factor."
http://www.stata.com/products/compatible-operating-systems-mp/

Does it mean it is rarely worth paying for double the number of
threads? Esp. as one does need to buy twice as many Stata/MP licenses
then? Or Stata/MP licenses do apply by the number of physical cores
anyway?

E.g. see the list of modern server CPUs from Intel:
http://ark.intel.com/compare/75052,75461,75054,75055,75462,75056,75464,75057,75466,75465
with fancier chips offering double the number of cores for threads.
(Explanation: "Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT
Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly
threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing
tasks sooner.")

Probably our money is better spent on large and fast RAM, then?

(Though I am also surprised these chips apparently limited to 1600 MHz
dual-channel DDR3 RAM.)

Thanks a lot for any thoughts on this matter,

Laszlo

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