In the second part of their article on the Xenon CPU that will power the XBox 360, Ars Technica delve into the technical details of the three cores within the CPU, discussing the potential impact their design will have on the performance of games written for the next-gen console.
The article highlights that the design of the Xenon, while great for streaming media, has potential pitfalls when it comes to code that requires more branches, such as game control, AI, and physics. It will be in the hands of the programmers to optimise their code much more than with the original XBox, though with a great deal of control of the low-level performance of the CPU, they will have the tools to do so. This will take some time to happen, and the first few games for the XBox 360 are unlikely to take full advantage of the Xenon’s potential – apart from the graphics that is. So, expect games that are great to look at, but not so hot in other categories.