o What is CPU Doubler? CPU Doubler is a performance enhancement utility for the Macintosh. It will increase the performance and responsiveness of your computer by as much as 100%. This will result in a faster computer, making the computer more efficient in running all of your applications. CPU Doubler is a control panel and is entirely implemented in software. There are no hardware add-ons or modifications that need to be made for the increased performance. CPU Doubler does not patch the system extensively, thus ensuring maximum compatibility. CPU Doubler requires system 7.0 or higher and uses very little RAM and hard disk space. It will yield the same performance boost on either a 68K or Power PC Macintosh. CPU Doubler works with the entire family of 680x0 processors (68000, 68020, 68030 and 68040) as well as any of the current Power PC processors, thus working on any Macintosh ranging from a Mac Plus to the latest Power PC. o How does it work? CPU Doubler achieves its performance enhancement by properly managing the computer's throughput. Throughput is defined by the amount of time the processor spends executing process instructions. A process is any piece of software that performs some function on your computer, independent of the system. All applications run as processes. Some system extension, such as file sharing, also run as processes, albeit hidden ones that the user never sees. There are two ways a processor can waste time. It can waste time sitting idle, or it can spend too much time swapping processes in and out. 1) By sitting idle the processor wastes valuable cycles that are not used to execute your application code. 2) If too much time is spent swapping processes in and out, then the overhead associated with the swapping causes the processor to spend valuable cycles setting up registers and memory for each process that is swapped in as well as cleaning up registers and memory for each process that is swapped out. CPU Doubler increases the computer's throughput via a proprietary scheduling algorithm. System 7 has a fairly simple scheduling algorithm which gives equal time to each process. Each application can increase or decrease the amount of processor time that it gets, but there is no sophisticated load management scheduling that tries to give optimal throughput. CPU Doubler modifies the existing scheduling algorithm, without replacing it completely. This is done for backward compatibility. By patching the system's existing scheduler, both optimal performance and compatibility is achieved. o Can I customize it to fit my needs? CPU Doubler can accommodate different computer needs. It can be configured within a wide range, either giving most of the processor's cycles to the currently running process, or only giving a slight improvement in user performance with minimal impact on background processing. Additional options exist to exclude all faceless background applications as well as the Finder/System. A key feature of CPU Doubler is that it lets users customize performance to fit their needs. By setting individual process priorities, users can perform their own load balancing, finally giving users the ability of job control found in other multitasking operating systems such as UNIX and OS/2. There is even a history feature with which to set priorities of non-running applications so that future use will yield the desired result. o What kind of performance boost does it give? The performance boost that CPU Doubler will yield really depends on how you use your machine. Since CPU Doubler speeds up your machine by optimizing the amount of time the processor spends on your application, it needs to be able to siphon processor cycles from other processes. Most Macintosh computers have multiple processes running at any one time. Even if the user is running only one application, such as a word processor, there are usually other hidden processes running. These are sometimes created by system extension at startup, and sometimes by other applications. Even the Finder takes up CPU cycles. All these CPU cycles add up and slow down the overall performance of the computer. If you boot your computer with extensions off and only run one applications at a time then CPU Doubler probably won't give you any significant speed boost-the only thing it can do in this case is take cycles away from the Finder. However, in most cases CPU Doubler will be able to find plenty of processes to siphon cycles from, thus ensuring better performance. At no time will CPU Doubler slow down your machine. o Will it work with other speed enhancing utilities? CPU Doubler speeds up your Macintosh by making the system software run more efficiently. It is totally dependent on the system software and not the underlying hardware. Other speed enhancing utilities, implemented in either hardware or software, actually try to make the underlying machine run faster so that the system that runs on top of it will speed up as well. Combining CPU Doubler with these speed enhancing products will give a combined performance boost making the system faster and more efficient. In some cases, speed enhancing utilities will improve the performance of a particular part the system, such as disk caching utilities. Combining this type of utility with CPU Doubler will also result in a combined performance boost, since both will work independently to increase system efficiency. ______ CPU Doubler is available now from Orchard Software, Inc. for a special introductory price of $47.95, a 40% savings from its $79.95 retail price. An additional $3 shipping charge (overseas shipping is $7) must be added. MA residents must add 5% sales tax. Included with the package is a detailed manual describing how to use CPU Doubler. There is also a complete on-line help system that is accessed at the click of a button. CPU Doubler also includes with it a free copy of Cron Manager(tm), our chronological event management utility, which retails for $26.95. For further questions you can contact us at the address below or by sending us email at: 102670.1653@compuserve.com To order CPU Doubler, please send a check or money order made payable to: Orchard Software, Inc. P.O. Box 380814 Cambridge, MA 02238-0814 (617) 876-4608