NEWS - Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Xbox 2 Design Elements
The patent, which describes a "system and method for parallel execution of data generation tasks", almost certainly refers to Xbox 2 but reveals little about the actual hardware in the next-generation console. What it does show is a system with multiple distinct processors (the actual number of CPU cores isn’t given) which interface into a single graphics processor (GPU), which ties in with the expected multi-core design of the Xbox 2. The patent, which was uncovered by US website TeamXbox, goes on to describe a system whereby the first ("host") CPU handles normal game tasks, while the other CPUs are set to work creating procedural geometry and "fine-grained processing associated with a game". The example given of this in the patent is setting a processor to work on generating a realistic tree using geometry data for a leaf and physics data for the world around the tree - technology which would relieve much of the huge burden which generating art resources for next-generation games presents to developers. A system such as this was described by J Allard at E3 last year, when he talked about the potential for "procedural synthesis" which would take advantage of the processing power offered by the successor to Xbox.Source: http://www.eurogamer.net
