Intel has unveiled a prototype chip that packs 48 separate processing cores on to a chunk of silicon the size of a postage stamp.
The Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), as it is known, contains 1.3 billion transistors, the tiny on-off switches that underpin chip technology.
Each processing core could, in theory, run a separate operating system.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8392392.stm
Personally, I'm still waiting for some dual core optimization for some apps I run...