Why have I got a post title like that?
Well, some of you may now know, but I spend my days working for a company, writing the system software for gamling gaming machines... yes, I write one arm bandit software!
Today though, with a hard drive melt down, and a bad head on Friday, I'm about a day behind on my release schedule. So I've brought my work home with me... luckily, this does not mean I've carried a fruity machine box around with me, no, I've been the first victim... (cough) I mean user... of the Emulator, to let me pretend I have real fruit hardware sat here.
It's had numerous teething issues in the office, notably timing and performance issues. At work however, we have single core machines to run this on... so it's sharing time with the system software and the games, and despite my pointing out that things block one another from the CPU there's been no concurrent or threaded operation considerations taken into account with this software. It's brute force kind of program, which when given a CPU core maxes it out to 100% and sits there grinning.
At work, single core... kapput.
Here at home, I have a quad core, so using task manager, I've set the CPU affinity to my last core (core 4) and let it max that out, and then I've run the cabinet operating system on the first core (core 1).... and you know what, it runs sweet as a nut.
I just wished the author of this emulator had of listened when I said "You need to make it concurrent" about three months ago... I'm going to go in on Monday and have to point this out to someone, how I can do this politely I'm at a loss for... I might just be a beligerant bombastic bastard to everyone; because I've spent Friday night and Saturday working at home.
Anyway, at last I can now play "Category C" gambling games on my PC at home. lol.... if only my PC would suddenly start spitting out £1 coins...
Well, some of you may now know, but I spend my days working for a company, writing the system software for gamling gaming machines... yes, I write one arm bandit software!
Today though, with a hard drive melt down, and a bad head on Friday, I'm about a day behind on my release schedule. So I've brought my work home with me... luckily, this does not mean I've carried a fruity machine box around with me, no, I've been the first victim... (cough) I mean user... of the Emulator, to let me pretend I have real fruit hardware sat here.
It's had numerous teething issues in the office, notably timing and performance issues. At work however, we have single core machines to run this on... so it's sharing time with the system software and the games, and despite my pointing out that things block one another from the CPU there's been no concurrent or threaded operation considerations taken into account with this software. It's brute force kind of program, which when given a CPU core maxes it out to 100% and sits there grinning.
At work, single core... kapput.
Here at home, I have a quad core, so using task manager, I've set the CPU affinity to my last core (core 4) and let it max that out, and then I've run the cabinet operating system on the first core (core 1).... and you know what, it runs sweet as a nut.
I just wished the author of this emulator had of listened when I said "You need to make it concurrent" about three months ago... I'm going to go in on Monday and have to point this out to someone, how I can do this politely I'm at a loss for... I might just be a beligerant bombastic bastard to everyone; because I've spent Friday night and Saturday working at home.
Anyway, at last I can now play "Category C" gambling games on my PC at home. lol.... if only my PC would suddenly start spitting out £1 coins...
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