BIOS: Technology Means Business

The era of multi-core PC gaming is here. Intel's multi-core processors, such as the Pentium processor Extreme Edition, let software developers add features to their games that create more realistic experiences. The ability to run different threads - or components - of the game in parallel can not only make the game run faster, but can also make it more engaging, claims Intel.

'We have spent the last year empowering more than 10000 software developers with thousands of multi-core development platforms,' said Bill Kirby, director of planning in Intel's Software and Solutions Group. 'We are now beginning to see the new threaded applications and multi-core platforms gamers have been waiting for.'

'In Black & White 2, multi-core technology enabled our development team to move the entire physics engine - the component that makes game objects behave like real-life objects - to a separate thread,' said Tim Rance, chief technology officer of Lionhead Studios. 'As a result, we have managed to run many more objects in the physics simulation so complex scenes appear much more realistic. We also utilised multi-core capabilities in our title The Movies and are excited about the future of multi-core processing.'

Another exciting PC game available for the holidays, City of Villains by NCsoft North America, also benefited from work with Intel's software team. 'Thanks to Intel multi-core development systems and tools, we are creating cutting-edge games that benefit from these new technologies,' said Jeremy Gaffney, vice president of Product Development at NCsoft. 'We see appreciable differences in frames per second and rendering times thanks to the threaded game engine technology.' Additional multi-core gaming titles are listed at www.intel.com/go/gaming.

Just released, the Intel 975X Express chipset platform provides a high-performance, customisable gaming experience. For the enthusiast, the Intel 975X Express chipset platform offers dual graphics capability - allowing two graphics cards to power a game simultaneously - for the most demanding games and gamers. This platform will be available soon from various manufacturers. More information is available at www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/.