What is Hyper-Threading (Hyper-Threading)?

If you are recently thinking of buying an Intel microprocessor, or an Intel-equipped computer, you may have heard the hyper-threading phrase appear on those Product description line or technology pages.If you are not a person who regularly updates your computer hardware knowledge, you may not be familiar with the term.

However, understanding hyperthreading is important because it is a key feature on some Intel processors.Like most of the main processor features, it is often advertised pretty much on their products by manufacturers.There has been a case where an employee at a technology store told his customers that hyperthreading effectively duplicates the number of cores on a processor.It is true to say so in some respects, but in general it is still "smelling" of advertising and overstating.So knowing this information will be very beneficial, especially when you are about to choose to buy yourself a computer.

Let's see what hyperthreading really means!

History of hyperthreading

Try to remember when you last bought an Intel-based computer, and at that time did you hear or read this hyper-threading phrase?So why does Intel stop using this technology for a long time if it does not encounter problems?

The truth is not as harsh as we think.In fact, hyperthreading has been around for a long time on some Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon processors.Hyperthreading has been discontinued not because the feature itself is ineffective, but because of mistakes on processors that integrate this technology.The Pentium 4 architecture was a minor disaster for Intel because it did not go in the direction that Intel hoped, at the time Intel wanted Pentium 4 processors with clock speeds of up to 10GHz, and as a result, Intel has returned to focus on another Pentium Pro platform's processor.And so for a while after that, hyperthreading was very popular with the Pentium, but that doesn't mean the technology has been forgotten.Finally, Intel had enough time and resources to integrate it into a new processor architecture - Nehalem.This is the basic architecture for all current Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 microprocessors that we are familiar with.

The mode of operation of hyperthreading

Regardless of all the advances manufacturers have made in the world of microprocessors, they still have some major limitations.A single processor core can only execute one instruction at a time.For example, suppose you have MS Office, Firefox and Skype all open at the same time.You feel you're multitasking, but on the processor side, they're saying they're not in a multitasking state.The processing core is responsible for executing commands as well as processing data related to the above programs that only execute one command at a time, but because it's so fast, you don't notice any delays. and thought it was handling multitasking.

But there is still a delay.The delay is due to the way data from each program is allocated to the processor.Each data stream (processor flow) must be scheduled and executed by individual cores.However, hyperthreading can help each processor core to schedule and assign resources to two threads at the same time.

To make it easier to understand, imagine the image of a worker on an assembly line.There are 2 different products that the worker must assemble and of course the way of assembling these two products is also different.However, sometimes there is a delay because there are too many heavy components so the conveyor belt is slow or the tape has trouble because it has to be loaded for too long.In this case, hyperthreading is like adding another conveyor, there is now an additional conveyor dedicated to transporting each of the different parts.There is still only one worker, but now materials can be brought to him more quickly and efficiently so labor productivity is also significantly improved.

Hyperthreading is not double the number of cores

If you start the dual-core processor with super-threading and open the Windows Task Manager, you'll see four charts appear.This is where the misconception about hyperthreading helps double the number of cores on a processor that appears.Someone even suggested that he had bought an 8-core microprocessor because he saw eight charts in the Windows Task Manager.Worse than many salespeople have also told their customers like that, resulting in disastrous mistakes.

In fact, the above two diagrams appear in Windows representing the cores on the hyperthreading processor, each corresponding to a core because Windows discovers two logical processors for each core.The term 'logical processor' sounds strange, but the term actually refers to a microprocessor with no physical existence (virtual processor).Windows can send threads to each logical processor, but in reality there is only one core executing the commands, so a single core with hyperthreading will have a significant difference from the two. A separate physical core is common.

The advantages of hyperthreading

Enough is enough, let us now go to the most important part: How will hyperthreading affect the performance of computers?

In terms of the tasks that most of us use everyday such as web browsing, email and word processing, hyperthreading will not have much effect, in other words, the impact is negligible.In theory, hyper-threading will help the chip work better in multi-tasking.However, today's processors are so fast, that basic programs rarely get delayed by the speed of the processor.How encrypted programs can also be a limitation.Sometimes you may find that although many programs are open, only one processor core is carrying most of the tasks.This is because programs, for some reason, do not allow tasks to be divided equally across the different cores available.

However, when you are trying to do some hard work, hyperthreading will definitely prove much more useful.This can be seen most clearly through 3D image editing programs, audio transcoding applications, heavy video and scientific applications built for maximum multi-threaded performance, which will be super times. threads can increase performance by up to 30%, although there will also be situations where hyperthreading is not effective at all.

summary

The number of performance enhancements up to 30% indicates that hyperthreading is completely unlike duplicating the number of cores on a processor.So if someone is trying to equate two concepts, there are two situations, one is that they don't know anything, 2 is that they are trying to advertise for you to buy their product.

In general, hyperthreading is a great feature and is well worth owning.It is especially good if you often work with heavy to heavy tasks.

See more:

1. The difference between 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi
2. What is VRM and how does it affect the performance of the processor
3. Learn about how the CPU works
4. The difference between a mid tower and a full tower computer case