Xbox One SDK leak reveals development access to seventh CPU core

The November 2014 Xbox One development tools were leaked over the holidays and according to what was gleaned from the latest SDK, developers now have access to the console's seventh CPU core.

Per the information leaked by H4LT and explained in layman's terms by Digital Foundry, the additional CPU power will allow games to run smoother, but it also means developers may have to cut "custom, game-specific voice commands" used via Kinect in order to use the extra core.

"Kinect's infra-red and depth functionality is also disabled. Secondly, the amount of CPU time available to developers varies at any given moment - system-related voice commands ("Xbox record that", "Xbox go to friends") automatically see CPU usage for the seventh core rise to 50%," said Digital Foundry.

"At the moment, the operating system does not inform the developer how much CPU time is available, so scheduling tasks will be troublesome. This is quite important - voice commands during gameplay will be few and far between, meaning that 80% of the core should be available most of the time. However, right now, developers won't know if and when that allocation will drop. It's a limitation recognized in the documentation, with Microsoft set to address that in a future SDK update."

There's more information in there which gives you look into what developers will and won't be able to do regarding the extra core. It's a bit techy, as usual, but for those interested in such matters it's a good read.