After years of using patches to make software written for single core processors take advantage of multicore architectures, video game developers have begun taking multicore into consideration from the beginning of development. Intel has recently announced the release of software development tools to help developers make the switch to multicore. When parallel processing first appeared in consumer machines in 2005, the games being released had been in development for several years. At that point the video game industry was at a "D-minus," in programming for multicore, said Intel gaming director Randy Stude. "I'd say we're at a 'C-plus' right now." Intel and AMD both made significant efforts to promote simple ways of making games use parallel computing. "It won't give the same kind of performance, but it's going to help, and it's better than nothing," explains Jon Peddie Research's Ted Pollak. There are currently about 25 games on the market that were built with multicore in mind. "We feel it's a choice you have to make from the outset," said THQ representative Ben Collier. However, Intel believes the move to multicore is inevitable as all PCs are expected to be at least dual-core in the near future, while quad-core PC chips are on the way. "The learning curve is becoming less and less to get threading work done," says Intel's Stude.
