Exactly what kind of work does the cpu do in a console?

[fehu]

In a closed ideal model like that on the consoles, actually what is the role of the cpu?
And what will change with the advent of >dx11 class gpu?
Will the cpu even and even less important?

 

[Humus]

The role of the CPU on a console is pretty much the same as on a PC. The only difference would be on the PS3 where you have the SPUs which are sort of middle-ground between a GPU and CPU, and those are sometimes used for GPU-like processing.

 

[fehu]

if you are free to engineer a closed game system, what would be the ideal characteristic of a cpu related to the gpu?
will nextgen offload a lot to the gpu, making the cpu less important?

pratical example and real goal of this thread:
it's reasonable to have (for example in the nextbox) a flexible big powerfull gpu, and a small cpu with some ooo core?

 

[liolio]

You may read this presentation from dice

 

[fehu]

nice link!

 

[Nick]

will nextgen offload a lot to the gpu, making the cpu less important?

Yes, no.

The GPU is good at number crunching, but it still needs a CPU to control it. In fact for games that are "CPU limited" the problem isn't that the CPU is slow and this could be fixed by pushing work to the GPU. It spends a lot of its time feeding the GPU the right commands and data.

Direct3D 11 enables the ability to feed the GPU commands from multiple cores simultaneously. So in the future you should expect to see powerful GPUs combined with powerful CPUs. The GPUs can do more than just graphics, but they need a CPU to match.

 

[fehu]

in the linked ppt i've seen that dice are talking about "self feeding gpu"

looking at something like larrabee and fermi in a custom platform like a console, can we deemphatize the importance of the cpu?

 

[Cypher]

In a closed ideal model like that on the consoles, actually what is the role of the cpu?

For 99% of the games out there: game logic, ai, streaming management, animation calculation, audio playback, issuing draw and state commands for the GPU, handling data for GPU, receiving input, managing HUD, physics calculations. Everything in a game short of drawing triangles and pixels. Just like on the PC.