Dual core chips are now de rigueur for many modern PCs, and the era of the quad core processor is looming. But is your small business ready to take full advantage of the power of these new multi-core chips?

It depends on what your small business wants to do – dual-core technology is now the business standard, even for small businesses.

Did you know? Servers aren't the only places that quad core chips such as the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor can strut their stuff.

Video applications may present the most obvious advantages of clients running a quad-core processor. With the right app, quad-core chips let you peer deep into shadows even as they effortlessly smooth out so-called “jaggies” and other artifacts. Users get a smoother, more natural display of streaming video with fewer delays and hiccups.

Of course a quad-core chips' speed, multithreading (letting the system split programs and processes among its processor cores to run faster), and ability to multitask – letting you keep even more programs open at the same time without slowing down - can also be a distinct advantage for many small companies.

Small businesses using only one or two PCs probably may not yet see big advantages to upgrading to quad-core desktops and laptops. For them, the sweet spot is still most likely systems using the dual-core versions of AMD Athlon ™ 64 X2 dual-core processors and
AMD Turion™ 64 X2 mobile technology.

But companies with larger networks running a multitude of applications will clearly benefit from the higher efficiency and speed of quad-core technology on their servers .

-- Bruce Freeman