MikeB on 02 December 2007
@ Entroper
A symmetrical design is much more familiar to developers, and an asymmetrical design presents a lot of new challenges, mainly in thread control (not so difficult) and memory management (more difficult).
Yes, more difficult for low level game engine and middleware developers, but those aren't actually the ones complaining, it's mostly those who are dependent on 3rd party middleware solution providers who haven't yet finished adapting their code.
From a performance perspective an asymmetrical design offers great benefits,
Insomniac's igPhysics:
Benefits of SPU Shaders to igPhysics
● Pipeline well defined and completely SPU-driven
● SPU processing completely asynchronous
● Data well-organized and well-defined.
● No (or minimal) PPU intervention
It's that you seem to have made it your mission in life to loudly proclaim the greatness of the Cell from every mountaintop and disprove every slightly negative thing anyone says about it.
No like I said way back in 2005, I fully well realize the hurdles developers have to go through. But I care more about the potential end results and I believe within a couple of years most of the guys here will do so too.
