Multicore-programming?

[John Machin]

On Sep 7, 8:06 am, cnb <circularf... at yahoo.se> wrote:
> If I buy a multicore computer and I have really intensive program. How
> would that be distributed across the cores?

AFAIK, a single process wouldn't be distributed automatically.

> Will algorithms always have to be programmed and told specifically to
> run on several cores so if not told it will only utilize one core?

AFAIK, yes. See (for example) http://www.parallelpython.com/

> So is the free lunch really over

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Something which has never
existed can't be over.

> or is this just an overhyped
> phenomena?

These days, every IT phenomenon is over-hyped.

If you have a CPU-intensive Python program, you may want to consider:
(1) checking that there are not faster/better algorithms for doing
what you want in Python, either built-in or in a 3rd-party library
(2) using psyco
(3) checking your code for sub-optimal constructs

HTH,
John