Hi,
I'm migrating from an i686 to an EM64T machine (Intel core 2 quad) and I'd like to know whether there are specific options that I can pass to gcc for an optimization of my code or if everything is blindly set up. How would I manage the 4 cpu cores if I was to write in assembly?
GCC has a lot of optimization/architecture flags. Just have a look here [1]. However, this won't make your software use the 4 cores.
You should use threads or multiple processes with IPC. I don't know what you want to do but I think you should forget about writing in assembly and use an higher level language. You probably don't need assembly at all. Moreover, higher level language have sometimes concurrency and synchronization facilities which will help you getting the most of your 4 cores.
Regards, Cyril Jaquier [1] http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/i386-and-x86_002d64-Options.html