The best players, hardware and software come together at Intel-sponsored Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) World Tour Grand Finals.

“We have spent the last year empowering more than 10,000 software developers with thousands of multi-core development platforms,� said Bill Kirby, director of planning in Intel’s Software and Solutions Group. “We are now beginning to see the new threaded applications and multi-core platforms gamers have been waiting for.�

Intel’s multi-core processors, such as the Intel® Pentium® processor Extreme Edition, let software developers add features to their games that create more realistic experiences. The ability to run different threads or components of the game in parallel can not only make the game run faster, but can also make it more engaging.

“In Black & White 2, multi-core technology enabled our development team to move the entire physics engine – the component that makes game objects behave like real-life objects – to a separate thread,� said Tim Rance, chief technology officer of Lionhead* studios. “As a result, we have managed to run many more objects in the physics simulation so complex scenes appear much more realistic.�

City of Villains by NCsoft North America also benefited from work with Intel’s software team. “Thanks to Intel multi-core development systems and tools, we are creating cutting-edge games that benefit from these new technologies,� said Jeremy Gaffney, vice president of Product Development at NCsoft. “We see appreciable differences in frames per second and rendering times thanks to the threaded game engine technology.�

At the CPL World Tour Grand Finals in New York, enthusiasm for the future of gaming has never been stronger. “The Pentium processor Extreme Edition offers us a great gaming experience and gives us an edge in competition,â€? said FNATIC’s Sander “Vo0″ Kaasjager, the top seed at the CPL World Tour Grand Finals. “And we are really excited to run the new Intel® 975X Express chipset-based platform through its paces.â€?