linux OS support for Multicore

Clarifications

On this in one of the "Linux" magazines this will give you more in-depth detail.
As for multi-processor tasking, Linux will do (nearly) all that you throw at it.

More info here:

http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/Wiki/Multi-threadappsforMulti-core/490.htm

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

are best answered by reading and testing.

To help you on your path here are the resuts of some benchmark I have done on a linux kernel. The standard compile means CPU load balancing,

>
AMD tl-60, Cores 2, Clock speed 2.00 GHz, L1 128Kb, L2 2 x 512
Installed RAM 2 Gigabytes PC5300, Video NVidia GeForce8 8400M
OS: Ubuntu 7.10

Benchmarks 2.6.14.52 kernel compile (SMP restricted to two cores)
**********************************************************************************

CPU ZLib (Higher is better) Δ Performance Closest CPU's
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-CPU ZLib-
Standard : 18502.373 + 100% Intel Celeron 2.00GHz 6825.732
AMD K8 SMP : 21381.103 + 115.6% Intel Celeron 2.20GHz 6894.855
EMT64 SMP * : 21659.341 + 117%

CPU Fibonacci (Lower is better)
-------------

-CPU Fibonacci-
Standard * : 4.277 + 103.7% Intel Pentium 4M 3.33GHz 3.507
AMD K8 SMP : 4.434 + 100% 2x Intel Pentium 4M 3.33GHz 3.515
EMT64 SMP : 4.283 + 103.5%

CPU MD5 (Higher is better)
-------

-CPU MD5-
Standard * : 43.239 + 101.19% Intel Pentium 4 2.00GHz 21.948
AMD K8 SMP : 42.792 + 100.14% Intel Pentium 4M 2.00GHz 22.212
EMT64 SMP : 42.732 + 100%

CPU SHA1 (Higher is better)
--------

-CPU SHA1-
Standard : 62.495 + 103% Intel Pentium 4M 1.70GHz 24.247
AMD K8 SMP *: 63.055 + 103.9% Intel Pentium 4M 1.60GHz 24.408
EMT64 SMP : 60.689 + 100%

CPU Blowfish (Lower is better)
------------

-CPU Blowfish-
Standard * : 18.542 + 101%2x Intel Core2 Duo T7500 2.20GHz 15.140
AMD K8 SMP : 18.741 + 100% 2x Intel Core2 6420 2.13GHz 15.177
EMT64 SMP : 18.555 + 100.07%

FPU Raytracing (Lower is better)
--------------

-FPU Raytracing-
Standard * : 13.723 + 100% 2x Intel Core2 T7600 2.33GHz 13.573
AMD K8 SMP : 13.956 + 101.7% 2x Intel Xeon 3.40GHz 13.577
EMT64 SMP : 13.871 + 101.08%