Originally posted by
Jim Sachs:
The Aquarium is multithreaded, at least as far as a sequential time-critical program can be. The code does not change, it's simply a compiler switch.
After I got it the PS3 it was interesting to learn why so many cores is supposed to be a good thing. For gaming, I learned that 3D games do a lot of different things in real time, and a separate core for each of these tasks helps things happen concurrently:
- artificial intelligence
- collision detection
- physics engine
- VoIP
- Networking
- User I/O
- Audio
- Graphics
So I got the distinct impression that each of these different tasks could be specifically written as a separate thread of execution, threads that certainly have to come together to synchronize and keep the game running lock step, and when done successfully, such games really benefit from multiple cores. I also read that this is easier said than done.
Of course on a console game, the game developer has total control over the hardware, and there are no other programs competing for resources, as opposed to aquarium developers who write for general purpose operating systems with lots of extra stuff running in the background.