@alephnull
I suspect all this 4d nonsense they are talking about are just homogeneous coordinates which allow any affine transformation (rotation, translation, dilation, reflection, etc) in R^3 (3d) to be represented as a 4x4 matrix acting on "4d" points.
Haven't they used those for a while already(Well, nearly as long as there has been 3D games. I think quake used those already. 1996)? Homogeneous coordinates aren't really a 'new thing'. I suspect that this 4D nonsense is just some sort of fud that has no real meaning. :)
If you want a more thorough explanation I can give you one, but I'm going to stop here as I can already feel people's eyes glazing over.
Sure, getting more knowledge is always a good thing. :)
Anyway, as you said they are hard to program for and I know that with complicated programs they are like hell to program(Well, I haven't programmed anything for CELL, but what I have heard from those who have.). The amount of stuff you need to define in your programs and amount of micromanagement when it comes to SPU is just 'too much' sometimes. :)
@MikeB
Heres some some stuff about procedural synthesis on X360,
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360-1.ars
As you can see X360 is superior(*shivers*) platform when it comes to procedural synthesis. It is like it has only been made for gaming. THE X360 can do multiple... - - -(*hrr* , I - just - can't - continue -. , MikeB, just how can you do it? :D)
