PS4 graphics to be PowerVR Series 6 ?

On Dec 1, 10:17*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:
The alMIGHTY N wrote:
Wow. I hadn't read that. So much for Blig Merk's constant yabbering
about how great Cell is.

On the other hand, isn't it still possible that they'd use some
current variant of Cell to power their next console? There must have
been developments to the processor since the launch of the PS3 3 years
ago and it would allow them to not have to worry about forcing
developers to learn yet another brand new architecture for the next
generation...

There was a small but significant revision to the core, where they
increased the double-precision floating point efficiency of the
processor. However, this was done to help out in the supercomputing
arena, not really relevant for gaming. Nor does it provide much
performance increase for gaming, since most gaming is done using
single-precision floating point.

One has to wonder how long Sony would be interested in using a core
that's never going to be revised anymore?

I suppose they would have to weight that against using another brand
new architecture that will have developers confounded for the first
three years of the console's life.

Even now many developers have problems utilizing the PlayStation 3
architecture properly. Essentially, the good games are being pumped
out by first and second party studios who had a good year head start
on everyone else with the architecture (and have direct access to the
folks at Sony who worked on the architecture).

It would be disastrous for Sony if they repeated that mistake next
generation. If they're going to go with a new architecture, I for one
hope that they go Microsoft's route and utilize one that's much more
familiar with developers.

The alMIGHTY N writes:
It would be disastrous for Sony if they repeated that mistake next
generation. If they're going to go with a new architecture, I for one
hope that they go Microsoft's route and utilize one that's much more
familiar with developers.

The problem with the PS2 and PS3 was that top-level decisions about
development directions were largely made by _marketing_ people, with
limited understanding of the technical realities.

But since Kutaragi has been kicked out, maybe they'll be a bit more
level-headed with the PS4.

-Miles

--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

On Dec 1, 10:40*pm, Miles Bader wrote:
The alMIGHTY N writes:

It would be disastrous for Sony if they repeated that mistake next
generation. If they're going to go with a new architecture, I for one
hope that they go Microsoft's route and utilize one that's much more
familiar with developers.

The problem with the PS2 and PS3 was that top-level decisions about
development directions were largely made by _marketing_ people, with
limited understanding of the technical realities.

But since Kutaragi has been kicked out, maybe they'll be a bit more
level-headed with the PS4.

One can certainly dream...

-Miles

--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

The alMIGHTY N wrote:
One has to wonder how long Sony would be interested in using a core
that's never going to be revised anymore?

I suppose they would have to weight that against using another brand
new architecture that will have developers confounded for the first
three years of the console's life.

Well if they head towards a regular PowerPC chip, they can still
maintain some level of compatibility with the Cell's PPE component, if
not its SPE's.

However, I was surprised by how well Microsoft was able to maintain
compatibility between Xbox (x86) and Xbox 360 (PowerPC). I think Sony
should be able to create an emulation layer for the Cell's SPEs somehow.


Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
However, I was surprised by how well Microsoft was able to maintain
compatibility between Xbox (x86) and Xbox 360 (PowerPC). I think Sony
should be able to create an emulation layer for the Cell's SPEs somehow.
MS bought VirtualPC, a Windows emulator for PPC Mac's, so all that work was
already done. The tricky part was emulating the NV2A. IIRC Nvidia said
they would sue if they used their IP or some lame reason like that.

Jim wrote:
"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
However, I was surprised by how well Microsoft was able to maintain
compatibility between Xbox (x86) and Xbox 360 (PowerPC). I think Sony
should be able to create an emulation layer for the Cell's SPEs somehow.
MS bought VirtualPC, a Windows emulator for PPC Mac's, so all that work was
already done. The tricky part was emulating the NV2A. IIRC Nvidia said
they would sue if they used their IP or some lame reason like that.

I think MS was helped immensely because they actually used their own
DirectX API layer in their original Xbox. The DirectX made Nvidia
proprietary calls more generic so that once ATI replaced Nvidia, it was
easy.

Sometimes Microsoft bypasses its own standards just to get things done a
bit faster. It always gets itself into trouble that way, when a new
security hole or bug is revealed.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:
I think MS was helped immensely because they actually used their own
DirectX API layer in their original Xbox. The DirectX made Nvidia
proprietary calls more generic so that once ATI replaced Nvidia, it was
easy.

It mainly worked because Microsoft never created a emulator that could
fully emulate the original Xbox. Instead they created a custom version
of the emulator for each game that they decided to provide backwards
compatibility for. Each version of the emulator only had to emulate
CPU and GPU functionaliy each game actually used.

The next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles won't be able
emulate the current Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in software
because CPU power isn't going to jump an order of magnitude like it did
with the previous generation. If the next generation of consoles have
backwards compatibility it'll be because they have CPUs and GPUs that are
the same or similar to the currention generation. I would't be suprised
if the next Xbox has a slightly faster PowerPC CPU with 4 or 6 cores,
and the next PlayStation has the exact same Cell BE, similar to how the
PlayStation 3 had, at least originally, an "Emotion Engine" CPU.

Ross Ridge

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/
db //