Holy crap:
(http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/880/quadcoreroadmapqjvnecdr8i2r6rh.jpg)
Whats so surprising about that?
Its a natural progression but Im wondering when will game writers catch up with reality? :(
Quote from: SeriousIts a natural progression but Im wondering when will game writers catch up with reality? :(
Theyre getting there, Quake 4 takes significant advantage of dual cores.
Yeah - multiple cores are pretty predictable - theyre just like having maths units all over a DSP chip. Getting them to share a useable chunk of memory without gimping each other will get tricky tho.
Quote from: SeriousIts a natural progression but Im wondering when will game writers catch up with reality? :(
They shouldnt have to - compilers, hardware drivers and OS kernels should split their code for them really. Sure multithreaded apps would be lovely and all but theyre a pita to write. Having the compiler automate a lot of that for you has to be the key :)
Intel or AMD tho? lol
thats the AMD naming structure so guess its their leak.
edit: yeah it is AMD
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060503150902.html
Its not surprising, its just there, its near you can almost touch it, but its not just that. Mutliple core does now seem 100% the way to go, no duel cpu crap, no multi split chip functionality, just all in one still, multi core power.
And i think AMD will and are doing it the best.
With this in mind i wonder how the cell chip will do in the pc and server market and i think people liek AMD are taking on board some the things it does and using what they can (legally etc) in terms of some of the concepts.
All very cool stuff, with that and the fact that they are now able to make thinner and chips producing less heat at last (xbox36o new chip for example) it means that cooling solutions will not have to get more and more effective, larger etc.
man the heat from a chip with 4 cores must be hard to shift
One interesting development I read about a while back is AMD developing an anti-hyperthreading technology. Effecitvely the reverse of what intels hypthreading does. It will make 2 cores look like one.
Considering current coding of O/S and software it would be a significant advantage.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/04/17/amd_reverse_hyperthreading/
the biggest problem is the lack of people able to handle mutli processor coding, those that can do it are generally working on the super computer level.
as has said before it isnt the job of the program makers to make multi core processing work, it should be the work of the lower level stuff. Unless ms decide to make their os support multiple processing it wont be worth it unless you are running the same number of applications as cores that all want 100% usage you wont get the performance you should for the money you are paying.
The amd reverse hyperthreading sounds promising, but it will be increadibly complex and i doubt it will get the performance an o/s that supports multiple cores would.
unless computing suddenly moves over to another format it is all in the hands of ms, and they dont like change...
:(
M$ have had SMP OSs since NT
Quote from: evilslyM$ have had SMP OSs since NT
Very true :)
Its time for app/game programmers to take advantage :)
Quote from: neXusMutliple core does now seem 100% the way to go, no duel cpu crap, no multi split chip functionality, just all in one still, multi core power.
Nah youve got it all wrong ;) You can stick with your single socket quad core system; Ill be enjoying my dual CPU 8 core system with socket specific RAM, chipset, etc :D
Multi-core technology hasnt made multi socket systems redundant... if anything it?s made em more enticing!
that would be... nutts lol
Quote from: evilslyM$ have had SMP OSs since NT
They have the ability to support them, but process sharing between the cores isnt handled by the operating system. It shouldnt be the responsibilty of the software developer to institute sharing of a process between the cores, it should be much more low level at the operating system.
To the game/software it should at least have the ability to treat the multiple cores as a single core and let the operating system decide how to share the process between them. Imagine having 50 processes all trying to directly manage dual core processing It would be like a coachload of americans at an all you can eat buffet.
Yer this does look like the obvious road they were heading in... Im still on a singlecore but Dual cores seem to have taken off alot more resently
Quote from: Binary Shadowman the heat from a chip with 4 cores must be hard to shift
Easer than a single core operating at twice the speed. They can count the whole lot as one core that puts out more heat but over a larger area. The reason Intel ditched the speed race was simply the speed increase was far exceeded by the temperature and it just wasnt worth it. Theory showed them that 10Ghz was possible, practice proved it wasnt worth it.
Four cores at 2.5 Ghz will probably put out less heat than 1 at 5ghz.