multi-core software

[Dimiter "malkia" Stanev]

Jeff M. wrote:
> On Jun 9, 9:08 pm, Arved Sandstrom <dces... at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Jon Harrop wrote:
>>> Arved Sandstrom wrote:
>>>> Jon, I do concurrent programming all the time, as do most of my peers.
>>>> Way down on the list of why we do it is the reduction of latency.
>>> What is higher on the list?
>> Correctness.
>>
> 
> IMO, that response is a bit of a cop-out. Correctness is _always_ most
> important, no matter what application you are creating; without it,
> you don't have a job and the company you work for goes out of
> business.

PC / Video Games definitely fall out of the correctness. As long as the 
game does not crash your XBOX/PS3/Whatever for certain amount of time, 
and behaves well then, it's fine.

Bugs are already part of the "genre".

In reality you can't ship on time, there are always BUGS :)

Most important thing in games is (at least for large percent of them) 
speed of graphics - fluid 60fps, or stable 30fps.

> 
> But, assuming that your program works and does what it's supposed to,
> I agree with Jon that performance needs to be right near the top of
> the list of concerns. Why? Performance isn't about looking good as a
> programmer, or having fun making a function run in 15 cycles instead
> of 24, or coming up with some neat bit packing scheme so that your app
> now only uses 20K instead of 200K. Performance is - pure and simple -
> about one thing only: money.
> 
> Programs that use more memory require more money for the hardware of
> every user. Programs that run slower eat more time per day. If you
> have 100,000 users, all doing an operation once per day that takes 20
> seconds, being able to shave 5 seconds off that saves 5.78 man-days of
> work. Hell, for some applications, that 20 seconds is just startup
> time spent at a splash screen. Just imagine if every Google search
> took even 5 seconds to resolve, how much time would be wasted every
> day around the world - ignoring the fact that Google wouldn't exist if
> that were the case ;-). Obviously Google engineers work incredibly
> hard every day to ensure correct results, but performance better be
> right up there at the top of the list as well.
> 
> Jeff M.