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Sony Unlocks PlayStation 4's Previously Reserved Seventh CPU Core For Devs (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Toward the beginning of the year, it was revealed that Microsoft was going to "unlock" the seventh core on the Xbox One's processor, enabling developers to eke just a bit more performance out of the console and offer more flexibility at resource utilization. It appears that Microsoft's move would inevitably be followed by Sony, as reports are now coming in that this will be made available on the PlayStation 4 as well. This subtle change was highlighted in the latest changelog for the FMOD sound engine which is labeled as a "LowLevel API." While the unlocked core could take on FMOD duties if developers want it to, it's now not going to be tied to any single purpose. Developers could make use of this core, for example, to boost AI performance, or any other process that has a heavy computation requirement. It could also be used to simply help ease overall system load.
Microsoft leads in innovation and others just follow suit.
Next you Linux folks will be unlocking secret CPUs on the Raspberry Pi.
First it is the PS3 and not the PS4. Second is it is the 6th SPU part of the Cell. Third the reason is because the security side of the PS3 is no longer needed.
So apparently there was some sort of software/firmware that restricted the hardware preventing it from utilizing everything available? Why develop for this shit in the first place?
Seriously, why was it ever locked?
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
They were reserved for system use.
More typical cisgender microaggresive behavior from the corporations. When will this end? "Unlock" indeed. You cannot keep us chained forever!
I guess neither of these are that, but what if they were? Would the core have... special powers?
So, the system doesn't need them any more? Why doesn't anybody care about the poor system?
You are welcome on my lawn.
So apparently there was some sort of software/firmware that restricted the hardware preventing it from utilizing everything available? Why develop for this shit in the first place?
I don't know, maybe the billions of dollars in revenue that comes along with developing AAA titles for consoles?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I guess neither of these are that, but what if they were? Would the core have... special powers?
No, it would just have a stupidass attempt to refer to a book series that nobody with a life gives a fuck about. That way other Slashdot tards with no life can all fap together to it, coalescing into a great big circlejerk, each stroking the penis of the tard next to them, while pretending like the perfect stranger whose penis they are gripping is somehow their soul mate. Sort of like every single time a dumbass meme gets modded up or a movie reference gets made or a god damned XKDC comic gets linked that really has no meaningful connection to the subject "at hand". Somebody will see me mentioning the manual stroking of strange penises and see that I said "at hand" in quotes like that and say "hah I see what you did there" and another dumbass Slashdot meme will get modded up. Thus the cycle of penises repeats itself, with nary a vagina in sight.
Won't somebody please think of the system!
How can anyone devoted to free markets make an informed decision when manufacturers fail to disclose information about their products?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
...for about half an hour.
A place to do serious DMCA computation and ad content generation without affecting game performance, great!
Those greedy fucks cripple their own systems to extend the life of them. I expect the full value of my product the day I pay for it.
It would be a good idea to practice sepeku. I realize an idiot of your caliber would mess it up a few times, but don't worry, someone else will clean up the mess when you're done.
But intel keeps telling us we only need 4 cores for games?!
So apparently there was some sort of software/firmware that restricted the hardware preventing it from utilizing everything available? Why develop for this shit in the first place?
Yah, it's called an operating system. That's pretty much been their job since what, the 90's at least?
They want to be able to stream and have gimmicky input controls - like kinect. Thus they have to reserve processing power, otherwise would run into the risk that if the game reserve it all, the streaming experience is lowered or even so crappy as to be useless. The same way kinect for example you would need to reserve some processing power (although I think in the mean time they changed it so that if the game is not kinect enabled, that processing power is free to be used). And then again there might be system part for which they need even more processing power like DRM management.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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I guess neither of these are that, but what if they were? Would the core have... special powers?
No, it would just have a stupidass attempt to refer to a book series that nobody with a life gives a fuck about. That way other Slashdot tards with no life can all fap together to it, coalescing into a great big circlejerk, each stroking the penis of the tard next to them, while pretending like the perfect stranger whose penis they are gripping is somehow their soul mate. Sort of like every single time a dumbass meme gets modded up or a movie reference gets made or a god damned XKDC comic gets linked that really has no meaningful connection to the subject "at hand". Somebody will see me mentioning the manual stroking of strange penises and see that I said "at hand" in quotes like that and say "hah I see what you did there" and another dumbass Slashdot meme will get modded up. Thus the cycle of penises repeats itself, with nary a vagina in sight.
Someone needs a hug
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Bond, James Bond. Sony owns MGM. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Management decision. The dumbest technological decisions always come from a management team.
I'm guessing that you will start to hear glitches on the audio if this feature is made use of, as without having a core reserved for it, the "FMOD sound engine" is going to have to start sharing resources with other demands on CPU processing power.
Will this pave the way for the underground community? There are no published docs (to my knowledge) describing security controls. Just a curiosity, plain and simple.
Exactly. The "PC Master Race" seems to forget that piracy has really killed games on PC, at least the AAA titles. Indies are huge on PC (as they are on mobile), so that's all left.
Most AAA gave development money is headed towards consoles where the DRM keeps piracy low (under 10% typically) and there's a good chance to make back the money. So consoles get the first release to make back the development money, then after everyone's made their money, they port it to PC with the hopes the PC port pays for the porting effort. To help with this, they reduce the price (out of necessity since the game has been out 6 months to a year already).
The few PC games that get same time releases generally are online games where the server can enforce DRM (your Call of Duty or Battlefield games). Very rarely do you get something like a Fallout 4 where there's a PC release at the same time as console with no online component.
Heck, while there are a few stubbornly PC only developers, many former PC only developers branched out to consoles - Activision-Blizzard,and Valve being notable ones.
It's called follow the money. Otherwise why else would developers subject themselves to content approvals and all sorts of other things when they can release on PC for free.
forbidden core.....
Screw it, were going to seven cores.
System gets a higher priority than applications.
Welcome to OS 101.
Break on through to the other side. Do-da-do-da-do-da-da-do. Break on through. Break on through. Break on through to the other side.
Activating hardware you already paid for but was kept "secret" by the manufacturers until they need to keep up with the PC's.
Mark my words, This gen it's free, next gen it's going to cost the end user for each "upgrade".
Or even the slightest chance of actually being in the presence of a vagina before he dies.
a) because it doesn't matter, if it's 6, 7 or 500 cores, as long as everybody else has the same number of cores at their disposal. b) money
I just want to be able to make informed decisions. Hiding secret cores does not make that possible.
It's not called hiding when it's publicly known just because you have your head up your ass.
Please, cut the AI bullshit. No game development company will ever use this for AI. AI in console games has not evolved significantly for something like 20 years, since 3D pathfinding became good enough. IA is always dumb and will always be because marketers think most people want shiny graphics, explosions and big guns.
Stupidity is the root of all evil.
Yes, the FMOD sound engine would like to have its own core. Or if you don't drive it hard, half a core. Or if you drive it really hard, two cores. You know audio processing scales, right? But let's say you want to be dumb and give FMOD an entire core. Now you have a *new* core you can put FMOD onto, leaving 6 remaining, so you can use FMOD "for free" now compared to a month ago. (Of course only an idiot would actually use FMOD on PS4 since the APU already contains a dedicated sound processing unit which offloads the processing from the x64 cores already, that FMOD doesn't use.)
So no you won't start to hear "glitches" on the audio if this feature is made use of. FMOD isn't a system process. Why would you think it was? Do you even know what FMOD is?
Seriously, this article has the most uninformed comments I've ever seen on Slashdot. I mean, I get that not everyone here is a PS4 developer, but why the hell are the informed comments from PS4 developers mixed in with such presumptive uninformed bullshit?
Americans...
Surely you mean "more flexibility FOR resource utilization"?
Oh please, that strawman was debunked ages ago, its no different than the *.A.A claiming that piracy cost them more than the GDP of the planet! All one has to do is look at the incredible mountains of cash valve is generating without putting out new AAA titles in years to see PC gaming is a HUGE money maker and that users do not mind DRM if its not intrusive always online horseshit like UbiSuck.
No lets cut through the bullshit, shall we? The REAL reason that you see so many developing for consoles is that console users are easy to fuck and fuck hard, end of story. They can keep the prices jacked for FAR longer on consoles because they do not have to deal with a free market, with consoles they have a captive monopoly so they are the only game in town. With PC you have Steam and GOG and the Humble Bundles and Origin and UbiPlay and Greeman Gaming and Amazon, with PCs the users have a huge market to shop from and endless titles going back 30+ years so they don't have to put up with the "take it and like it" bullshit. Check a new title 3 weeks after release, where is it cheaper? PC. 3 months? PC, 6 months, a year, 2 years? PC, PC, and PC, simply because if you don't compete? You ain't getting that money.
So don't give us the party line bullshit, its because of money alright, its because they can royally fuck console users and they have no choice but to bend over and take it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So it's like running for years with an anvil under each arm. If you drop them at last, you can run faster.
But why binding one hand on the back on purpose in the first place is beyond me.
From what I have seen in reviews of new games like Fall out 4 and COD. I think its clear the gaming developers are already pushing the limits of the new consoles.
Makes me wonder how long before these new consoles will have to have a hardware upgrade design? I think for one thing the increasing size of the home television and resolutions has also increased the need for better gaming hardware. PC's have kind of excelled in this area as we now see $600 video cards. This opens up a lot of potential for developers. I certainly do not see the longevity the PS/4 or XB1 having compared to past consoles.
Exactly. The "PC Master Race" seems to forget that piracy has really killed games on PC, at least the AAA titles. Indies are huge on PC (as they are on mobile), so that's all left.
Sorry, what did you say? I can't hear you over the sound of The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Just Cause 3, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3... (some of which got console ports, but none of which were developed before the PC version)
Otherwise why else would developers subject themselves to content approvals and all sorts of other things when they can release on PC for free.
Because:
1) Releasing on PC isn't free if you're distributing through a major platform like Steam or GOG, which you'd be a fool not to do.
2) The cost of content approvals and other such things is more than worth the amount of money the console ports will bring in.
You're not wrong about developers doing multi-platform releases to make as much money as they can, but in the end piracy hasn't made a dent in PC games. Steam's DRM is effective enough that it stops casual pirates; the only people who pirate PC games are those who were never going to buy them in the first place. Then you've also got publishers are GOG, who are completely DRM-free, and somehow they still seem to be doing quite well for themselves.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
GP is so far off its unreal, you hit on most the marks. An additional one is that many games simply can't be played with controllers. I mean, Dota 2 and LoL combine for ~20m unique players a month by themselves? Top-down RTS/MOBA style games are hot garbage with a controller, as are most strategy games, most simulation/city builder games, and most MMO games.
I'm sorry that popular culture touched you in your no-no spot, but the seventh-son "meme" is quite a bit older than you apparently think.
'geekprime' apparently mystified by the ever-elusive vagina. Forget that it's attached to an actual person.
By software magic, it turned out that they only needed 1 core to do the magic. System still get core 8.
That'd be fine if there were viable PC counterparts to certain console exclusives. Does PC have a flagship fighting game with terrain and platforms (like Smash Bros. or PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, not like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, which are flat plane fighters)? Does PC have a flagship kid-friendly third-person shooter (like Splatoon)?
Indies are huge on PC (as they are on mobile), so that's all left. [...] Heck, while there are a few stubbornly PC only developers, many former PC only developers branched out to consoles
So in your opinion, at what point does a PC game developer stop being "indie" and start being "stubborn"?
I can't tell if I offended the AMD shill mods or the Intel shill mods with that one...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Also a fool to believe piracy is a bad thing, someone has been drinking the kool aid and failed to do their own research! As a fellow indie game dev, I did long ago and came to the conclusion many have, piracy is a marketing stream and fighting it is a lost cause that only harms you and your game(s).
Exactly. The "PC Master Race" seems to forget that piracy has really killed games on PC, at least the AAA titles.
I wouldn't say that. Platforms like Steam have curbed quite a lot of the casual piracy in PC Gaming. Most of the stuff left over is from people who were never going to pay for the game anyway. PC sales revenue has been steadily rising year over year for the past decade. Almost all AAA titles are also released on PC. There are exceptions but of all the major franchises, most come out on PC and they come out day-and-date with consoles. Also keep in mind that there are no used games for PC like there are in the console market, and those are a much bigger concern for the publishers than PC piracy these days.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
It goes to 11...