Performance Scaling With Cores: Introducing The Smoke Framework
In an overview piece posted on Gamasutra, Intel Software and Services Group application engineer Orion Granatir and PC Perspective editor-in-chief Ryan Shrout have outlined Intel's Smoke framework, which attempts to intelligently optimize multi-threaded processors for gaming, ameliorating some of the difficulties encountered by game developers who are unaccustomed to the increasingly important world of multicore development, which is "moving in the direction of 'more cores' rather than 'more clocks.'"
In addition to explaining the purpose and architecture of Smoke, the piece gives a practical example based on a demo application, showing relative performance based on scaling to various numbers of cores.
As the pair explains:
"Smoke is a model framework that maximizes the performance of the processor in a purely gaming environment. Built to take advantage of all available threads, it works equally efficiently on standard dual-core Intel Celeron processors as well as on new Intel Core i7 Processors with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology.
"The Smoke video demonstration, shown at many trade shows and technology events, uses modern game-development technologies, including Havok for physics processing, FMOD for audio playback, Ogre 3D and DirectX 9 for graphics rendering, and more. As you would expect for an internally developed demo, the code shows the Smoke framework as a well-partitioned and configurable product.
"Intel developed Smoke mainly as a teaching tool to demonstrate the ability to create a framework that can scale to any number of threads. Developers are encouraged to explore the technology by examining new threading techniques and learning about the interactions between various game engine systems that typically hold back a game’s potential threadability.
"Intel’s goal through this and other efforts is to help prove that multi-threaded gaming can be done effectively and is an investment in time that is worth taking."
The full article is available to read on Gamasutra; no registration is required.
