Elfwine opened this issue on Jan 09, 2007 · 31 posts
pjz99 posted Wed, 10 January 2007 at 3:52 PM
I'd return it and get Windows XP Pro 64-bit, which is available today. I'm running it now and plus the new hardware I've got, it's the most stable machine I've ever owned.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/default.mspx
It says pretty plainly in the license info I gave a link for in my first post in the thread: each license covers two processors. Two processors with any number of cores is one license. Although everybody in the thread (me included) is a little off when it comes to more than two processors, it seems:
Q. A customer wants to upgrade their single-core processor system by replacing the single-core processor with a multicore processor. If they do so, will there be an increase in cost for their current software license?
A. No. The customer will incur the cost for one software license per processor, not per core. So if a customer replaces the single-core processor on their system with a multicore processor, they will need to have only one license per processor.
Q. How does this licensing policy affect products such as Microsoft Windows XP Professional?
A. Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows XP Home are not affected by this policy as they are licensed per installation and not per processor. Windows XP Professional can support up to two processors regardless of the number of cores on the processor. Microsoft Windows XP Home supports one processor.
... so if you have a hypothetical machine with more than two processors, it seems you have to go to a server OS.