First generation Xbox 360 games all single threaded

Microsoft has disclosed that the first generation of Xbox 360 games will be single threaded, despite the console’s multicore architecture.

Herb Sutter

The Inquirer was present at a recent lecture on multithreading at the Fall Processor Forum, and has reported that Microsoft, after using the Xbox 360’s three core, two thread per core architecture as an example in their presentation, went on to say that all first-generation Xbox 360 games would be single threaded.

Part of the reason for this may lie in the software development community’s apparent lack of experience with multithreaded programming.

In another lecture at the Fall Processor Forum, Microsoft software architect Herb Sutter stated that, to date, many application developers had been developing single threaded applications exclusively, and may be finding the switch to multithreaded programming somewhat challenging.

Historically, first-generation games for any new console don’t fully utilize the console’s improved hardware and processing power.

Although demos of Xbox 360 launch titles have impressed many, gamers can expect more “next-gen” looking titles from the second generation of Xbox 360 games and beyond, as developers become better acquainted with the subtleties of programming for the new console.