Multi-core processors for Video Arcade Cabinets - why should we care?

Lots of our customers ask about the CPU performance of new Video Arcades like DreamAuthentics Arcade Cabinets.It is actually a misconception that “faster is better” for any and all games. That is actually NOT TRUE for today’s Interactive Kiosk cabinets such as ours.Many of the old-school “retro” games like centipede, pac-man and missile command were originally based on MOS Technology (or Metal Oxide semiconductor) which at the time ran at a blistering 1x MOS Technology 6502 @ 1.512 MHzCompare that with today’s Multi Core processors (below copied from wiki) which means…A multi-core processor (or chip-level multiprocessor, CMP) combines two or more independent cores (normally a CPU) into a single package composed of a single integrated circuit (IC), called a die, or more dies packaged together. A dual-core processor contains two cores, and a quad-core processor contains four cores. A multi-core microprocessor implements multiprocessing in a single physical package. A processor with all cores on a single die is called a monolithic processor. Cores in a multicore device may share a single coherent cache at the highest on-device cache level (e.g. L2 for the Intel Core 2) or may have separate caches (e.g. current AMD dual-core processors). The processors also share the same interconnect to the rest of the system. Each “core” independently implements optimizations such as superscalar execution, pipelining, and multithreading. A system with n cores is effective when it is presented with n or more threads concurrently. The most commercially significant (or at least the most ‘obvious’) multi-core processors are those used in personal computers (primarily from Intel and AMD) and game consoles (e.g., the eight-core Cell processor in the PS3 and the three-core Xenon processor in the Xbox 360). In this context, “multi” typically means a relatively small number of cores. However, the technology is widely used in other technology areas, especially those of embedded processors, such as network processors and digital signal processors, and in GPUs.

To play the “old school” games which essentially ran around a 1.5Mhz CPU clock cycle (equivalent to old DOS PC’s) you DO NOT NEED a multi-core game engine.

HOWEVER, in the blog to follow - you WILL SEE what things to consider if you want to play some of the NEWER games which require more horsepower and if you want to do other functions on your DreamAuthentics game such as video editing and more processor intensive tasks.