need opinion on software to processor compatibility

Soundguy · Oct 28, 2013

Ok.. here's the skinny.

Long story short.

Being a school teacher is hard.

At my wife's school, they took printers away from the teachers and now all printing is to central office. you have a print quota. can't exceede it even if you pay. you gt xx sheets per week.. period. too bad if yo need more.. etc.

About 90% of the teachers brought in their own computer and bought a printer and all have them setup in their classrooms so they can actually print school supplies for their kids. My wife has a netbook and printer with scanner etc. we buy the paper and ink.. etc.. etc.

now the question.

She is looking at some educational software.. it's a few years old but available.

says it will run on xp, wants 512meg ram, and a 1.54ghz proc and a pentium or athlon proc.

ok.. the netbook is xp, has 2g ram, and a 1.67ghx Atom processor. that one is either a n270 or a N450.. can't remember which she has..

in any case. Many times we have loaded older software onto these netbooks and they actually do fine in speed. IE.. we loaded some older school software that was say 5ys old and made for older slower 800mhz desktops.. and they screamed on these atom's even though they are not pentium processors. there was more than enough ram and speed.

I have an older xp BIG laptop.. athlon proc, 'upgraded' to 1g ram, ad has the old ati rage 3d card for video. figure it is a 2004 laptop when it was new. I can run software on our netbook as fast or faster than that full featured athlon processor'd laptop due to mor ememory and faster proc.

so here's the question. when a software asks for a pentium or athlon. does it have to have it.. or is it solely a speed issue?

the software is older.. but available. likely not going to be available next year as xp support drops.. it's not terribly expensive.. but not so cheap that she wants to blow teaching budget on it if it has no chance to work.

any opinions?

Coyote machine · Oct 28, 2013

Can you give the notebook specs to the software co and see what they say? I would hazard a guess that if the software is old chances it will work on an XP equipped machine- XP is a pretty bulletproof OS. Find out what the software co's return policy is regarding compatibility issues too. Most software specked for Pentium and such is for compatibility issues, letting the operator know the software is most likely to be compatible, vs. not.
The schools' policy sounds like it sux. I can see having a limit, but not being able to buy past it is crazy.
Let us know the outcome, good luck.

Treesanddust · Oct 28, 2013

If the software requires a Pentium or Athlon processor, it should run on any newer processor as well.
The processor is not really the problem with older software running on newer systems as much as the version of Windows.
The area where you may have issues is if you have a new system that is a 64 bit operating system versus the older 32 bit operating system. Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 all come in 64 bit versions.
There was a 64 bit Windows XP, but it is very rare to come across one.
Most listed software requirements are minimum or suggested requirements, not the max specifications.

BTW, one reason the netbook seems to run software faster than the older laptop is most likely due to the disk drive. Most old laptops had really slow disk drives in them, most netbooks have a fast disk drive or a solid state drive.

Daver1963 · Oct 28, 2013

I don't know if it is still true, but one time I read an article comparing Pentium and Athlon processors. It stated that if the Pentium said it was a 2GHz processor then it was a 2GHz processor. If the Athlon said it was a 2GHz processor it might actually be a 1.5 or 1.8 tweaked up (voltage, current mods) to make it run at 2GHz and therefore might not be as stable.
Again, I don't know if that is still true.

Midniteoyl · Oct 28, 2013

Atoms and Pentiums are different architectures.. That being said, it can run the x86 (IA-32) instruction set which means it can run just about any 32-bit OS and software. So, the main thing to look for in software requirements is not 'Pentium or Athlon', but 'x86 32bit operating system'. In most cases it will just say 'Windows XP/Vista/7/etc' and specifically say '64 bit' or 'x86-64' if it requires a 64 bit operating system.

The performance of a single core Atom is about half that of a Pentium M of the same clock rate.

aczlan · Oct 28, 2013

Daver1963 said:
I don't know if it is still true, but one time I read an article comparing Pentium and Athlon processors. It stated that if the Pentium said it was a 2GHz processor then it was a 2GHz processor. If the Athlon said it was a 2GHz processor it might actually be a 1.5 or 1.8 tweaked up (voltage, current mods) to make it run at 2GHz and therefore might not be as stable.
Again, I don't know if that is still true.

At one time (~2003) 1Hz on a AMD would do more work than 1HZ on a Pentium, so a 1.8GHz AMD (ie: Athalon 2200+) would keep up with a 3GHz Pentium 4.
As an example, a 3GHz P4 had a PassMark score of 361 while a AMD Athalon 2200+ (1.8GHz) had a score of 363

Aaron Z

Soundguy · Oct 28, 2013

Coyote machine said:
Can you give the notebook specs to the software co and see what they say? I would hazard a guess that if the software is old chances it will work on an XP equipped machine- XP is a pretty bulletproof OS. Find out what the software co's return policy is regarding compatibility issues too. Most software specked for Pentium and such is for compatibility issues, letting the operator know the software is most likely to be compatible, vs. not.
The schools' policy sounds like it sux. I can see having a limit, but not being able to buy past it is crazy.
Let us know the outcome, good luck.

software says it runs on xp. ( in fact.. xp is the only os it lists. no 98, no ME, no vista.. no 7.. etc.. ) It's a slightly older software and goes out of print at the end of the year. in fact.. it is on closeout now.. .. and at educators pricing plus clearance. it's now affordable to buy on a teachers planning budget.

the netbook is running a xp 32 os

i have some software installed on both the netbook and the older laptop witht he 'real' processor.. and as said. the netbook poutperforms the laptop in circles.

Soundguy · Oct 28, 2013

Treesanddust said:
If the software requires a Pentium or Athlon processor, it should run on any newer processor as well.
The processor is not really the problem with older software running on newer systems as much as the version of Windows.
The area where you may have issues is if you have a new system that is a 64 bit operating system versus the older 32 bit operating system. Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 all come in 64 bit versions.
There was a 64 bit Windows XP, but it is very rare to come across one.
Most listed software requirements are minimum or suggested requirements, not the max specifications.

BTW, one reason the netbook seems to run software faster than the older laptop is most likely due to the disk drive. Most old laptops had really slow disk drives in them, most netbooks have a fast disk drive or a solid state drive.

the xp on the netbook is 32.. xp is the only os listed on the software under it's requirements. no other os or ver of windows is listed. needing only 512meg ram tells me it's old too...

Soundguy · Oct 28, 2013

Midniteoyl said:
Atoms and Pentiums are different architectures.. That being said, it can run the x86 (IA-32) instruction set which means it can run just about any 32-bit OS and software. So, the main thing to look for in software requirements is not 'Pentium or Athlon', but 'x86 32bit operating system'. In most cases it will just say 'Windows XP/Vista/7/etc' and specifically say '64 bit' or 'x86-64' if it requires a 64 bit operating system.

The performance of a single core Atom is about half that of a Pentium M of the same clock rate.

yep.. i knew different architecture.

the netbook is running xp 32bit.. runs it good. has 2g ram.. and apparently a very fast hdd. the netbook runs identical software as the older 2004 laptop witht he 'real processor' and runs it as good or better. even burns dvd's better on it's usb dvd drive.