Microsoft Unlocks Xbox One’s 7th CPU Core for Developers
Both the Microsoft Xbox One and the Sony PlayStation 4 were launched with an 8-core AMD CPU, 8GB RAM, and AMD GPUs. These specs have allowed amazing features to be released with the consoles, such as saving video game clips, live streaming, and an easy-to-use and fast home menu navigation systems.
From the game developer’s perspective, this wasn’t really the case for the Xbox One, since two of the cores were reserved for other non-gaming processes to run. Microsoft was the first of the two consoles to officially open the seventh core to game developers, which should enable faster processing time for in-game features. 50-80% of the seventh core is available to be used by game developers.
This information was actually discovered after the H4LT hacker group leaked the Xbox One SDK (Software Development Kit) a few weeks back. With the leaked SDK in hands, programmers were able to explore and gain information on how the game development process works. Apparently developers have had open access to the seventh core since October 2014.
