PS4 graphics to be PowerVR Series 6 ?

It still seems way too early to be talking about the PlayStation 4 and
yet, rumored news continues to pop up everywhere.

The latest is big, if it proves true: according to European source
PS3Clan, it seems SCEI "has officially chosen" the technical setup for
their next PlayStation iteration, which supposedly - depending on if
you believe the translation - will launch in 2012. The choice? The
PowerVR Series 6 by Imagination Technologies that utilizes a
technology known as "TBDR," which is "3-5 times better than a
competitive level nVidia/ATI Graphics card." Evidently, Sega used TBDR
to help power the old Sega Dreamcast and if you remember, that console
was definitely ahead of its time in the visual department. But perhaps
the most interesting part about all of this is that Sony will retain
the Cell processor currently in all PS3s; this new piece of advanced
technology from Imagination will work with the Cell. The quote in
question is as follows, although you may wish to take it with a grain
of salt without any official information:

"The PlayStation 4 shall use a high end variant of the 6 Series line.
Performance, specifications and features are at this time unknown. The
Series 6 shall receive an official announcement from IMGTEC sometime
in 2010, with initial models targeting the smartphone and netbook
sector."

On top of which, the rumor gets bigger by saying that SCEI has
furthered opted to work with IMGTEC for the next iteration of the PSP;
the new handheld will get the benefit of the Series 5XT. All of this
may sound like complete gibberish unless you're really into hardware
or programming but if it's all true, this is the first solid piece of
technical information we've seen concerning the PS4. The only doubt we
have is whether or not it'll be available by 2012... However, if you
think about it, the time frame would be in line with the last
generation; the PS2 launched in late October and the PS3 launched in
November of 2006. So you never know.

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/6173.html
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009...graphics-card/
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2009/11/...4-out-in-2012/


Sounds like 1997-1998 all over again, I mean, Sega Dreamcast...It was,
at first, rumored to use a high-end variant of PowerVR Series 2, then
it really happened. Now supposedly PS4 in 2012 with PowerVR Series 6
(and apparently PSP2 with Series 5) ?? Amusing if true. The more
things change, the more they stay the same.

"parallax-scroll" wrote in message
...
The latest is big, if it proves true: according to European source
PS3Clan, it seems SCEI "has officially chosen" the technical setup for
their next PlayStation iteration, which supposedly - depending on if
you believe the translation - will launch in 2012. The choice? The
PowerVR Series 6 by Imagination Technologies that utilizes a
technology known as "TBDR," which is "3-5 times better than a
competitive level nVidia/ATI Graphics card."

Either the rumor is false, or Sony had lost its mind again. TBDR became
irrelevant as soon as the Geforce3 and Radeon came along and did a simpler
form of hierarchical-Z culling that required far less video memory. Besides,
the nVidia and ATi GPUs nowadays have fill rate to spare, to such an extent
it's no longer heavily advertised. For example, my year-old GTX 285 does 56
Gtexels/sec, 4x that of the PS3, 7x that of the X360.

Evidently, Sega used TBDR to help power the old Sega Dreamcast and if you
remember, that console was definitely ahead of its time in the visual
department.

Yep, ahead by about a year, until the PS2 came along. And the derivative
Neon250 graphics card was simply forgotten in the PC market.

But perhaps the most interesting part about all of this is that Sony will
retain the Cell processor currently in all PS3s; this new piece of
advanced technology from Imagination will work with the Cell. The quote in
question is as follows, although you may wish to take it with a grain of
salt without any official information:

Whatever. CPU speed is simply not as relevant in today's games. For the PS4,
it would actually be sensible to shrink the existing PS3 CPU to something
like 28 nm and increase the clock speed. Keeping the same CPU architecture
definitely makes backward compatibility easier.

According to John Carmack, at least one of the next-gen consoles won't have
an optical drive. Who's up for 25GB game downloads? :-)

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"First of One" wrote
Yep, ahead by about a year, until the PS2 came along.
Dreamcast games looked better than early PS2 games. Dreamcast had double
the VRAM so it didn't have use 640x480 and could do AA so it didn't have
nasty jaggies.

With IBM out x86+Larrabee looks more likely than PoweVR. Intel can make an
offer Sony can't refuse.

Jim wrote:
With IBM out x86+Larrabee looks more likely than PoweVR. Intel can make an
offer Sony can't refuse.

Except that Larrabee isn't proven yet. PS4 can still go to a more
traditional regular PowerPC processor along with a traditional GPU,
making it more like the Xbox360.

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
Except that Larrabee isn't proven yet.
The same could have been said of Cell. Without crazy Ken shooting for the
moon we can expect a "cheap" PS4. I'm not expecting much from Larrabee (its
just a supercharged PentiumMMX afterall) but with Intel's fab capacity it
should be cheap.
IBM is still on board the Cell train afterall so we can expect Cell to stay.

* Jim:

IBM is still on board the Cell train afterall so we can expect Cell to stay.

Nope, it isn't. IBM discontinues all Cell development. Cell is dead.

Benjamin

Jim wrote:
"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
Except that Larrabee isn't proven yet.
The same could have been said of Cell. Without crazy Ken shooting for the
moon we can expect a "cheap" PS4. I'm not expecting much from Larrabee (its
just a supercharged PentiumMMX afterall) but with Intel's fab capacity it
should be cheap.

Cheapness has nothing to do with fab capacity, it has everything to do
with die sizes: the smaller the better. Current estimates are that
Larrabee will be *big*.

IBM is still on board the Cell train afterall so we can expect Cell to stay.

You missed the other part of this thread that said otherwise.

Yousuf Khan

On Nov 27, 3:15*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:

You missed the other part of this thread that said otherwise.

* * * * Yousuf Khan

Based on what I Googled, one division of IBM is off the Cell... not
the whole of IBM.

--
Bill Cable - Steelers Fan & Star Wars Collector
http://CreatureCantina.com ----- funny!

On Nov 27, 4:24*pm, Bill Cable wrote:
On Nov 27, 3:15*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
You missed the other part of this thread that said otherwise.

Based on what I Googled, one division of IBM is off the Cell... *not
the whole of IBM.

The link has already been posted in another part of the thread. Here
it is again.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...l_Concept.html