How many processors does Origin's bigO uses?

Question

We had a question in the exam whether a desktop computer is a multiprocessor or not. We are having a discussion now whether the BigO pc from Origin uses a single microprocessor or it uses more than one.

Answer 1

This question is really too broad for SO (for future reference); but Ill provide some insight that will hopefully improve your understanding. Your question is really, really broad in general and since the term microprocessor is a bit general and not all the technical information about all the parts of modern PCs is publicly available, its hard to give an exact number, mostly because alot of the components and subsystems of a modern desktop PC will have some kind of processor; generally these are microcontrollers but they are still processors running some firmware/software to do whatever functionality is required by that subsystem.

Certainly, none of the modern PCs (like the one you mention assuming its this one: https://www.originpc.com/gaming/desktops/big-o/) would be consider single processor system. Everything from desktops to laptops to smart phones these days all have at least 2-4 physical processors (ie, cores) as part of the application SoC; these all have mulitple main cores. So when you read about how this system has an Intel i7-9700K, that "processor" is really made up for 8 of the same x86-64 processors all in one. Its these cores that run all your applications and operating systems; but there are many little processors running their own code to do various other functions. For example, on Intel CPUs, there is a small processor that starts up when the computer first powers on and enables various management and security features (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine). Likewise, theres processors in many of the subsystems, like the audio subsystem for controlling low-level audio features has a small microcontroller/DSP, the graphics system can have tens or more of small processors depending on how you count the cores in the integrated GPU. And all of these as contained inside the package of the i7; there are even more on the motherboard and external components. Depending on what you count, there can be 100s of small processors in a modern computer system.

In the past, the main processor was a single core unit that really only had one microprocessor in it; the term "processor" and "CPU" have kind of held over so you might say that a desktop has an Intel i7 for a processor despite the fact the chip itself contains many main processors/cores and numerous subprocessors/microcontrollers. So while you might say that particular desktop has a single "processor" (as there are systems that can install more than 1 Intel/AMD SoCs, these are usually for high-end workstations or servers, also called multisocketed), note the difference between multiple processors and multiple sockets on the motherboard.

So, to directly answer your questions, it depends what is meant by processor. If the question is, can I fit multiple i7s (ie, is the system multisocketed), then no. If the question is, does a modern PC has multiple processors in terms of CPU cores, then yes. If the question is to count all the processing units on the system, including all the little microprocessors doing their particular job, then its really hard to say but there are alot of them.