There was interesting paper at ISCA a few years back that proposed vector extensions to the Alpha ISA (called Taranula) and then making a dual core processor with the second core a vector core. The vector core would still be dependent on the scalar core for certain functionality (eg, supplying scalar arguments, renaming) and they proposed a 16MB!! L2 cache to feed the beast, but the performance numbers (especially the performance/power numbers) were pretty impressive.
I participated in Beta 3 and I can tell u the game is not yet ready. There were some major patches in the past 2 weeks and there was no way near enough testing of those patches. Balance needs major tweaking in some areas, some of the elite professions have had some major issues, immersion is lacking, missions are lame and content overall is weak. However, the grafx are beautiful (if u got a top of the line machine) and the devs have been very communicative with the beta players so hopefully they will get their act straight when paying customers start complaining. Also, pricing ranges from $12-15 a month depending on how many months you purchase in advance.
Slashdot Mirror
Let each of the 2.5M peers currently on the tracker donate 200 each. Not bad for ensuring your favorite p2p tracker will stay up forever!!!!
get rid of those pesky branches...
I pwned that game!
There was interesting paper at ISCA a few years back that proposed vector extensions to the Alpha ISA (called Taranula) and then making a dual core processor with the second core a vector core. The vector core would still be dependent on the scalar core for certain functionality (eg, supplying scalar arguments, renaming) and they proposed a 16MB!! L2 cache to feed the beast, but the performance numbers (especially the performance/power numbers) were pretty impressive.
I participated in Beta 3 and I can tell u the game is not yet ready. There were some major patches in the past 2 weeks and there was no way near enough testing of those patches. Balance needs major tweaking in some areas, some of the elite professions have had some major issues, immersion is lacking, missions are lame and content overall is weak. However, the grafx are beautiful (if u got a top of the line machine) and the devs have been very communicative with the beta players so hopefully they will get their act straight when paying customers start complaining. Also, pricing ranges from $12-15 a month depending on how many months you purchase in advance.
The ASPCB will be up in arms!!