The introduction of dual-core processors, as well as the anticipation related to the forthcoming advent of additional multicore architectures such as Intel's 80-core processor, has spawned a response from Microsoft in relation to the instance in which product licensing will be impacted.

"Some software licenses call out a maximum number of processors they're licensed to run on, whereas others more generally talk about being installed on just a single computer (traditionally with just one processor). Multicore processors start to make this line a little blurry, because effectively each CPU core is a separate processor," stated Matt Kellner, test engineer on the Windows Embedded team.

Well, according to Microsoft, Windows XP Embedded licenses will not be affected in any manner by the deployment of multicore processors. In fact, you can access Microsoft's general policy on multicore processor licensing here.

"Basically, any piece of software that is licensed on a per-processor model will continue to be licensed as such, regardless of how many processor cores the processor contains. However, Windows XP Professional (and by extension, XP Embedded), is licensed per installation (i.e. the entire computer) and will support up to two processors regardless of how many cores exist on each processor. Of course, when in doubt, you can always ask your OEM or legal department to interpret the license agreement," concluded Kellner.