| Soleron said: The free software/open-source compiler gcc is to get automatic, compile-time multi-threading. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzEzNA This is huge. It's the first step towards multi-core PCs and consoles being utilised effectively.The big problem with the move to multi-core (which was a R&D and manufacturing cost saving technique by CPU makers) was that it required a lot of extra effort to properly take advantage of the additional cores, and all previous programs need a rewrite. As core counts increase (AMD plans a 12-core chip in 2010; Intel an 80-core one in the future) the problem will get worse. What we need is a compiler-level (i.e. automatic) program to multi-thread apps for you on compile. Even if it's very inefficient it will provide large performance increases to currently single-threaded apps. |
I am bit sceptic about this for current consoles as they are IoE, which means that you must customize code for them strictly if you want to make anything. PC however is OoOE so its way easier to make programs as you can freely program the way you want to do without thinking does these logical paths kill this platform & so on. So its easier to make it automatically code for it too. :P
