Dual CPU / Dual Core
 

If you have a PC with multiple physical CPUs that is, two or more chips installed on the motherboard
you'll need Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate to take advantage of both CPUs.

If you install Vista Home Basic or Home Premium, the OS will only recognize one CPU.

That's similar to the way Windows XP works today.
If have a dual-CPU machine, you need to install XP Professional to use both CPUs.


So what about dual-core CPUs?
That's different.
All Vista versions, even the lowly Home Basic,support multiple cores on a single chip,
with no additional configuration required.


To sum it up :
Multiple Cores should be seen on the Windows Vista Home Skus.
Two CPU sockets would require Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista
Enterprise or Windows Vista Ultimate to see the second physical processor.

well vista has issues with "dual" everything..

I have a nvidia 7950gx2, and I cant install vista on this machine, since the mobo (intel 975bx) does NOT support SLI (dual gpu's), vista does not "see" my video card...

Go figure, the "top of the line" OS can NOT recognize the top of the line video card setup...

It's still in beta mike, it will get there :) It's currently running smoother than xp on this rig which has me completely suprised seeing earlier versions ran like a ruptured slug in a salt pile :D