... is there a workable way of having sins use more than one processor?
Yes...
You need a multiprocessor board with shared memory... Symetric MultiProcessor ( SMP ) with shared memory and limited to a max of 32 processor...
And you need a board who support hardware speculative multithreading... this type of multithreading of linear software ( single thread ) append at runtime... not very efficient... mainly loops are shared between processor... let say that if you have two 2ghz processor, at best, the performance will be equal to a 3ghz processor... unless at compilation time, some vectorization optimization ( parallel computing ) was done ...
After vectorization optimization... when the generated code run throught hardware speculative multithreading have a performance on two processor who is 400% faster that on a single dual core at the same frequency... well, since Soase is not open source, we can only hope for a 150% speed increase in the best case...
I have test it myself, using Linux... have no idea what software to use with windows ( and how much it will cost ) and 3/4 of the power user bios option from my board are "not for windows OS"...
Almost forget, the more important : using multiprocessor mean 100% desync with online soase...
Well, when Rebellion and Kubuntu 12.04 LTS ( long term support ) are released ( both are in beta stage now, both at Beta 2 !!! ), i will start a topic for Kubuntu user... the screenshot below was taken with Kubuntu 10.04 LTS and Entrenchment, all setting on hightest, using the 7DS mod ( biggest around ), 10 player, ultra huge random map ( 10 star, 4 pirate base by star and between 350 and 500 planet ) and my own modification with double fleet and capital point...

As you can see, i break without problem the 2gb limit ( or the 3gb limit )... CPU use is 6%... since i have two CPU with 4 core at 2.66ghz, it is like 75% of a single core at 2.66ghz ( or 1 single core at 1.99 ghz )... this during a battle with 3 huge fleet... the max memory use that i have reach was around 11.5gb ram before crash but the software needed cost a few thousand $$$ ( rent at over 300$ year for student ), so it is not a option...
Almost forget, since Rebellion is using Steam in place of Impulse, and that Steam work with playonlinux ( Impulse have never work with Linux ), it will maybe try to make a script for Rebellion ( if needed )... a list of game that you can install in the same way that on windows, with playonlinux can be found at http://www.playonlinux.com/repository/?cat=1 ... as now, the top game used with playonlinux is skyrim... for these with MAC OS X, look at http://www.playonmac.com/repository/?cat=1 ...
Well, Ironclad/Stardock have made SOASE for windows but with a good setup, it run better on Linux ( for now )... The iron engine is one of the rare engine able to perform better that announced... the main limitation is not the engine but the windows OS... will probably be fixed with a sins 2 in a few years who will be 64 bit and multicore/multiprocessor who will be able to use the full power of Win7 ( i think that windows 8 will be a failure on Desktop computer )