Week 5: Muddy

In this week’s lecture, The Processor, I found hyper-threading to be confusing due to the lack of information. The lecture only describes it as an execution process. I’m still confused, so I found a source online to better understand. TechTerms.com gave a more detailed explanation on hyper-threading, making this concept easier to grasp.

According to TechTerms.com:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/hyperthreading

Hyper-threading allows the processor to execute two threads, or sets of instructions, at the same time. It’s almost like having two separate processors working together. This can improve the processing performance by allowing the two programs to be processed as separate threads at the same time. Intel claims up to a 30% speed improvement compared with a, non-simultaneous multi-threading Pentium 4.

http://www.musicxpc.com/images/products/hyper_thread_works.jpg

Basically, hyper-treading extends to 2 threads. It multi-tasks more than one instruction thread, giving a significant increase in the processors performance and time.