AMD: 12-Core CPUs Coming Early 2010

@Chocoa Yes that software is the OS, multi-threading doesn't need to be in every application to benefit from multiple cores. Parallel processing has been around for decades so this isn't really a new concept - just being done a much smaller, less power hungry scale.

Chocoa, This is no way pointless. These chips are server chips. More cores means more virtual machines in a smaller space. 2 processors means you have 24 cores, so 1 server with 2 processors could take nearly the same load as 6 quad core servers. This is a huge advantage in datacentres with limited space. Most datacentres run on dual processor quad core, which makes 8 cores, so 3 times the power in the same amount of space. I dont see how this is pointless.

@Chocoa: OSs have mostly supported multi-core systems a few years now. They'll happily distribute running programs around as many cores as you have (or there are programms) and most computer languages have built in threading support.

The main issue seems to be that for some types of programs nobody knows what would be a good way to split the work up.

As for when cores start getting ridiculous then that depends on how much of the effort of the programs can be split up. If the program always has a chunk that consists of 10% of it's work that has to run together on a single core then you're not going to get any improvements with more than 10 cores devoted to it. (although you may want an extra 1 or 2 for the O/S).

Guys,
Thanks for the responses! - In taunting you all I was reminded of a certain 'expert' who stated the world would only need four super-computers... clearly naive. I hope I did not project that or a Luddite mentality!

I feel encouraged that the hardware and software will give us the 'value' you've suggested. I guess, coming from someone who wrote machine code way back, it seems that there is a chicken and egg conundrum as Jopey points out. Now perhaps we can look forward to hardware that will do video editing and encoding with greater ease or, more likely, the cycle of egg and chicken will start over again....

And yes I get the After Effects lag Jopey!

Great to have a debate here folks, thanks to all that replied.