Report: Cell/B.E. to be Used in PlayStation 4
Could Sony be planning on using an upgraded Cell/B.E. in the PlayStation 4?
When looking at the three major home gaming consoles on the market today, the Sony PlayStation 3 packs the most advanced hardware. Utilizing the Cell processor, a joint venture between Sony, IBM, and Toshiba, the PS3 out-muscles both the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. While this doesn’t necessarily mean it will have the best library of games or highest sales numbers, it’s nice knowing you’re the only console on the block that offers a Blu-ray drive as well as a processor that’s still considered advanced even several years after release.
So advanced, in fact, that Sony may use it for the brains of its next console. The PlayStation 4, expected to be on store shelves sometime in 2011, will use a slightly upgraded Cell processor, according to unverified reports. With an expected core increase from 8 to 12, the new Cell chip will maintain something close to its current 3.2 GHz clock speed. The next Cell will also be based on the newest manufacturing tech, 45 nanometers, and could use a variation of DDR3 memory. The PS3 uses Rambus XDR memory, which is exceptionally fast, but also hits the wallet pretty hard. According to Electronista, Sony may get around the speed problem with DDR3 by grafting it directly onto the Cell processor, eliminating a lot of latency.
The move to a smaller and more robust Cell chip seems logical, but even if Sony decides to return to the drawing board with the PS4, the next Cell chip is still being worked on by Sony and friends, so look for it to end up in other devices like HD-friendly laptops. However, by the time 2011 rolls around, the Cell may be down to something even smaller than 45nm...perhaps 32nm or 22nm may be the magic number.
DDR3 is prolly the way to go. I'm not sure what the article means when it says "Sony may get around the speed problem with DDR3 by grafting it directly onto the Cell processor, eliminating a lot of latency". Does that mean a DDR3 memory controller or like a DDR3 L3 cache?
Anyways hopefully we see something a bit more practical to develop for right outta the gate. The Cell is really interesting though.
Does a measly console need all this power? I think it's just bragging rights for sony.
As good as the cell may be, and yes there's no denying its much more powerful than the CPU of the X360. The reason why the consoles are throwing such even punches at each other is that the cell is being held back by the PS3's graphics chip.
The 360 has a weaker processor but a reasonably matched graphics chip.
The PS3 has a behemoth processor with similarily (slightly less powerful) graphics chip.
The result? Both consoles are equally powerful when gaming is considered (these are consoles afterall, gaming should be the main consideration).
Unless you properly distribute a system's power, it will be limited by its weakest component, we as computer users know this full well. A graphics card can cripple the performance of the best CPU in games, and vise versa.
Then again, you could also make the point that the Wii is a success despite its library, which isn't exactly chock full of goodness and nirvana. There are a few great titles (mainly the old, established Nintendo franchises) and then tons and tons of steaming crap. The appeal of the system is for "casual" gamers, which in this case seems to be people who rarely even play video games but like to pick up the wiimote when visiting a friend's house.
But wasn't Sony talking all about how their hardware was designed to last them 10 years?
The graphic chip will be outdated even if cell is still very powerful. Besides, PS2 is still around 8 years after release
That was an absurd statement from Sony considering they had
very powerful competition (Microsoft). And we all know MS does NOT
like to lose.
IBM's Cell roadmap includes a PowerXCell 32iv, which appears to feature four PPEs (Power Processor Elements) and 32 SPEs, ie four Cell chips running in parallel.
As a game developer, this gives me a hard on. People can say what they want about the cell processor, but for encoding and decoding data, and general game engine handling, it's a great processor. It was never developed with PC computing in mind, so comparing it with PC components and processors is a waste of time. The one thing that the PS4 needs is a larger cell (IE: PowerXCell 32iv), and a better graphics engine. Since AMD and IBM have a technology agreement, I don't see why an APU on the cell wouldn't be a potential possibility with a built in high speed graphics core. We'll have to wait 3~4 years to find out for sure what Sony has cooking...
Intel Quad vs. Cell (video encoding)
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37845/135/
A standard PC processor can't keep up with a cells data throughput, but a cell can't handle the mass OOP general processing of a PC processor.
this is still very early in the game we might see flip-flopping on certain specs, originally the cell was supposed to be pushing 4GHz.
hopefully they simplify the design, I like just to see a simple monolith black box, I wouldn't mind the thing having a HEPA-filter to keep the dust out as well.
Moar like PS3.5!
This is almost all correct except the 360 actually has a much more powerful GPU.
The PS3 has a nVidia 7900GTX based GPU where the 360 has the R500. Its not simply a derivative of the X1950XT though, as it has some technologies that are very close to the R600 (HD2900).
But the PS3 has a lot of power through Cell, and Cell itself can be very hot but keeps cooler since the GPU offloads a lot of the work for the graphics.
PS4 may be planned now but I am doubting it will be anything like what they are planning as 3 years is a lot of time and by 2011 Intel is expected (AMD as well probably) to have 16-32core + CPUs, Sandy Bridge, and probably running them on the 22nm process node as well.
Both of them struggle at 720p. That's 1280x720. That resolution is smaller than the smallest resolution on Tom's hardware's recent video card comparison site. If that doesn't say something about the consoles...