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Most of us know that there's a PlayStation 3 on the way, and many people are starting to ask questions about what the machine will offer. So I've scoured the net, and tried to piece all of the information together, for those that are interested. So, before anyone accuses me of copying... this is my own work, but incorporates information from a number of different websites - no Copy & Paste except where exact quotes are used!
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As we know, the machine will be powered by a custom chip called The Cell, developed jointly by Sony, IBM and Toshiba. The design is complete, and engineers will soon be creating samples of the chip, with commercial production possibly starting as soon as the end of 2004. While The Cell will feature exclusively in the PS3, there are elements of the design which IBM hope to include in future server chips.
The problem with this new chip is that designing software for it could be even more of a challenge than designing the chip itself. But the chip itself is exactly what developers have asked for in the past.
Just after the launch of the original PlayStation in 1993, Shin'ichi Okamoto (Senior Vice President and CTO of Sony Computer Entertainment) asked an in-house developer at Sony what sort of power they'd need to create their ideal game. The developer replied "18,000 times the processing power of PS1". After the launch of PS2 (300 times the power of PS1), the same question was asked, and the developer replied "1,000 times the power of PS2" - and that is what Sony are trying to achieve.
But back to the software. It will take a significant leap in software development to get the best from the new chip. Richard Doherty, analyst at Envisioneering Group research firm, says "we believe the chip architecture is going to be on time and ahead of the software wizardry that is going to really make it get up and dance."
Sony demonstrated an early model to a select audience in July this year, and it seems that much of the work on The Cell is complete - although a physical chip is yet to be produced. This is where Sony's alliance with IBM and Toshiba really kicks in. Sony are effectively trying to overcome Moore's Law - that processing power roughly doubles every 18 months. What Sony are attempting would condense 20 years of Moore's Law into 5, and if they achieve that, it could be bad news for other chip manufacturers.
The Cell is basically a distributed computing network (i.e. multiple processors) on one single chip, and so Sony are looking at using IBM's silicon-on-insulator process on the new chip design. This allows transistors to be packed more densely, allowing 500 million or more on a single chip. As a guide, PS2's Emotion Engine has 13 million transistors.
"This means that Sony will be able to design its chips to take advantage of a manufacturing process that doesn't yet exist," says Bijan Davari, vice president for technology and emerging products at IBM. "By combining improvements in chip architecture, software, circuit design, and manufacturing, this is how we move toward a thousand times current performance." Apparently, this decision could pressure Microsoft into spending far more money on the development of the next Xbox if they want to compete.
The Cell is also set to feature 256MB of on-chip RAM. The machine as a whole will contain a slot-loading disc system, and possibly use Blu-Ray discs (capable of storing up to 27Gb) and be capable of rendering 6 texture layers in a single pass. It will also be the first Sony machine to feature four controller ports as standard.
Sony also hope that cell-computing chips will also be used in other devices such as TVs, camcorders and other electronic devices, rather than just the PS3. That way, production costs will fall far quicker.
In terms of the competition, nothing is yet known about any Nintendo successor to Gamecube, but Xbox2 is unlikely to receive any custom chips. Intel have no match for IBM's silicon-on-insulator process, and they also do not customise chips for specific purposes. Nvidia and other Xbox chip suppliers could only produce custom chips with funding from Microsoft. MS are expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on Xbox, and branching into custom ship design would add significantly to those losses. However, if they want to compete in the next generation battle, they may have to accept those losses.
But don't expect PS3 any time soon. Criterion recently confirmed that they believe Halo would be perfectly possibly on PS2, and stated that even with the increased number of polygons in Burnout 2 they're still only scratching the surface of PS2. Sony have revealed that developer Lost Boys have been working on a Halo-esque FPS since August 2000, with work on the game engine starting months before that. Sony clearly expect to get at least another 4 or 5 years out of PS2.
Web sources:
http://freeola.com
http://www.chinapost.com
http://www.zdnet.com
http://www.redherring.com
http://www.consolewire.com
http://www.gamespy.com
Print sources:
PSM2
UK Official PS2 magazine
-----
As we know, the machine will be powered by a custom chip called The Cell, developed jointly by Sony, IBM and Toshiba. The design is complete, and engineers will soon be creating samples of the chip, with commercial production possibly starting as soon as the end of 2004. While The Cell will feature exclusively in the PS3, there are elements of the design which IBM hope to include in future server chips.
The problem with this new chip is that designing software for it could be even more of a challenge than designing the chip itself. But the chip itself is exactly what developers have asked for in the past.
Just after the launch of the original PlayStation in 1993, Shin'ichi Okamoto (Senior Vice President and CTO of Sony Computer Entertainment) asked an in-house developer at Sony what sort of power they'd need to create their ideal game. The developer replied "18,000 times the processing power of PS1". After the launch of PS2 (300 times the power of PS1), the same question was asked, and the developer replied "1,000 times the power of PS2" - and that is what Sony are trying to achieve.
But back to the software. It will take a significant leap in software development to get the best from the new chip. Richard Doherty, analyst at Envisioneering Group research firm, says "we believe the chip architecture is going to be on time and ahead of the software wizardry that is going to really make it get up and dance."
Sony demonstrated an early model to a select audience in July this year, and it seems that much of the work on The Cell is complete - although a physical chip is yet to be produced. This is where Sony's alliance with IBM and Toshiba really kicks in. Sony are effectively trying to overcome Moore's Law - that processing power roughly doubles every 18 months. What Sony are attempting would condense 20 years of Moore's Law into 5, and if they achieve that, it could be bad news for other chip manufacturers.
The Cell is basically a distributed computing network (i.e. multiple processors) on one single chip, and so Sony are looking at using IBM's silicon-on-insulator process on the new chip design. This allows transistors to be packed more densely, allowing 500 million or more on a single chip. As a guide, PS2's Emotion Engine has 13 million transistors.
"This means that Sony will be able to design its chips to take advantage of a manufacturing process that doesn't yet exist," says Bijan Davari, vice president for technology and emerging products at IBM. "By combining improvements in chip architecture, software, circuit design, and manufacturing, this is how we move toward a thousand times current performance." Apparently, this decision could pressure Microsoft into spending far more money on the development of the next Xbox if they want to compete.
The Cell is also set to feature 256MB of on-chip RAM. The machine as a whole will contain a slot-loading disc system, and possibly use Blu-Ray discs (capable of storing up to 27Gb) and be capable of rendering 6 texture layers in a single pass. It will also be the first Sony machine to feature four controller ports as standard.
Sony also hope that cell-computing chips will also be used in other devices such as TVs, camcorders and other electronic devices, rather than just the PS3. That way, production costs will fall far quicker.
In terms of the competition, nothing is yet known about any Nintendo successor to Gamecube, but Xbox2 is unlikely to receive any custom chips. Intel have no match for IBM's silicon-on-insulator process, and they also do not customise chips for specific purposes. Nvidia and other Xbox chip suppliers could only produce custom chips with funding from Microsoft. MS are expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on Xbox, and branching into custom ship design would add significantly to those losses. However, if they want to compete in the next generation battle, they may have to accept those losses.
But don't expect PS3 any time soon. Criterion recently confirmed that they believe Halo would be perfectly possibly on PS2, and stated that even with the increased number of polygons in Burnout 2 they're still only scratching the surface of PS2. Sony have revealed that developer Lost Boys have been working on a Halo-esque FPS since August 2000, with work on the game engine starting months before that. Sony clearly expect to get at least another 4 or 5 years out of PS2.
Web sources:
http://freeola.com
http://www.chinapost.com
http://www.zdnet.com
http://www.redherring.com
http://www.consolewire.com
http://www.gamespy.com
Print sources:
PSM2
UK Official PS2 magazine
Page:
I've read somewhere else that its supposed to be 11GHz, which would still cause Microsoft problems. This is early days for hyping the PS3 though...
WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> The idea of downloadable games is something Sony have been throwing
> around for a long time now, but it's still not practical. Even with a
> broadband 512K connection, it still takes around an hour to download
> around 200MB. That's 3 hours or so for a full 650MB CD. When you
> consider that most PS2 games come on DVD now, and that - for example -
> Gran Turismo 3 has 3.5GB (gigabytes!) on the disc, then you begin to
> see why it's not practical.
>
> And when you think that a game could in theory use a full single-sided
> dual-layer DVD9, that runs it up to 9 gigabytes. Even on NTLs recent
> 1MB connections, that's still a lot of download hours.
Sony were thinking ahead of themselves as they invisioned we would all be running fibre optics at speeds of up 1Gb/sec. Of course with the broadband situation here 512K is standard with only Cable offering 1mb. Downloading games would be a major problem on anything short of 10mbit, even then it will take an hour to get 4.4 GB. At the moment ADSL can stretch to 8mbit.
I think if PS4 is released and everyone had access to a 1Gbit Fibre cable then we could see download games when we want to play. Would be nice to have it now, majorly fast downloads :)
> The idea of downloadable games is something Sony have been throwing
> around for a long time now, but it's still not practical. Even with a
> broadband 512K connection, it still takes around an hour to download
> around 200MB. That's 3 hours or so for a full 650MB CD. When you
> consider that most PS2 games come on DVD now, and that - for example -
> Gran Turismo 3 has 3.5GB (gigabytes!) on the disc, then you begin to
> see why it's not practical.
>
> And when you think that a game could in theory use a full single-sided
> dual-layer DVD9, that runs it up to 9 gigabytes. Even on NTLs recent
> 1MB connections, that's still a lot of download hours.
Sony were thinking ahead of themselves as they invisioned we would all be running fibre optics at speeds of up 1Gb/sec. Of course with the broadband situation here 512K is standard with only Cable offering 1mb. Downloading games would be a major problem on anything short of 10mbit, even then it will take an hour to get 4.4 GB. At the moment ADSL can stretch to 8mbit.
I think if PS4 is released and everyone had access to a 1Gbit Fibre cable then we could see download games when we want to play. Would be nice to have it now, majorly fast downloads :)
For those who may have missed it... from OPS2 mag, issue 30, page 29...
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PS3 WATCH
Although we don't want to start any premature rumours, Toshiba has just announced it's going into commercial production of the CELL processor, the fruit of a collaboration with Sony and IBM to produce smaller, faster and more efficient microprocessors.
The thinking is, this CELL technology will eventually be incorporated into Sony's next-generation entertainment system.
"CELL would obviously be the central chip for our next generation products," confirms SCEI spokesman Kenichi Fukunaga. "We're devloping CELL in preparation for the time when every computer is linked to the internet."
-----
Well, that's certainly come about far quicker than I ever expected, and it does bode well for the future. The technology of this chip is so far in advance of anything currently available that Sony's next machine should be pretty awesome.
-----
PS3 WATCH
Although we don't want to start any premature rumours, Toshiba has just announced it's going into commercial production of the CELL processor, the fruit of a collaboration with Sony and IBM to produce smaller, faster and more efficient microprocessors.
The thinking is, this CELL technology will eventually be incorporated into Sony's next-generation entertainment system.
"CELL would obviously be the central chip for our next generation products," confirms SCEI spokesman Kenichi Fukunaga. "We're devloping CELL in preparation for the time when every computer is linked to the internet."
-----
Well, that's certainly come about far quicker than I ever expected, and it does bode well for the future. The technology of this chip is so far in advance of anything currently available that Sony's next machine should be pretty awesome.
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