Number of processor cores confusion

[Chris Green]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 01:40:39AM +1100, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Tue, 2020-11-10 at 14:20 +0000, Chris Green wrote:
> > However, in reality, *very few* things running on your computer ever
> > use more than one thread/core.  Almost all of the time only one is
> > being used.
> 
> ?!? My computer is using all its cores, all the time. And when I say
> cores I really mean cores AND threads :-)
> 
> Run gnome-system-monitor to see what's going on.
> 
Well top and gnome-system-monitor don't agree!  :-)


> Software threads are not the same as the threads on CPUs. Same name,
> similar functions, but very different things operating at very VERY
> different levels.
> 
But unless software is written so that it *can* use multiple cores
then it doesn't.

Looking at gnome-system-monitor I can't really see how what is says
can be true, what sorts of things can *really* happen in parallel
without all sorts of problems?

-- 
Chris Green