PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)

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Do we know if the PS4 has them
I don't see any reason why it would not, I doubt it'd be worth re-engineering this bit for what is undoubtedly an insignificant amount of die space saved. And DMA would still have to take place I suspect, even in UMA systems, as there's significant on-chip memory also, and who knows if CPU and GPU memory spaces are really, truly unified in every situation in PS4. Some data duplication might still be necessary...
 
Fetching textures, models, display lists and related stuff from main RAM, as you say yourself. :)

Probably copying things the other way as well.
 
Fetching textures, models, display lists and related stuff from main RAM, as you say yourself. :)

Probably copying things the other way as well.

Cheers. The statement about being able to saturate PCI-E 16x is surprising. I'd have assumed you always want your GPU to be able to max out the potential of the PCI-E interface. I'm surprised to hear this is a "new" thing!
 
Did anybody here wondered about how many CUs could be disabled in Liverpool?
The consensus here seems to be 2, after reading the late discussion in the PC forum on the matter of "shader engine" in AMD GPU I doubt it more and more.
Dave Baumann stated that here is a reason why granularity (for disbaling CUs) in Cap verde (and bonaire even though there are no salvaged parts for now) is 2 and why it is 4 in Pitcairn.
I do not remember how it goes in Tahiti, any my point is that I'm building the belief that actually there are more than 20 Cus in Liverpool, with more than 2 CU disabled.
 
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Tahiti has apparently 11 CUs per shader engine, why shouldn't it be possible for Orbis to have 10? Just because Pitcairn has 4 shader engines with 5 CUs each?
 
Tahiti has apparently 11 CUs per shader engine, why shouldn't it be possible for Orbis to have 10? Just because Pitcairn has 4 shader engines with 5 CUs each?
I have a feeling you didn't mean Tahiti. Also, Pitcairn has 2 shader engines each with 2 shader arrays. I think OpenGL Guy commented about this for Tahiti. Yes, it's confusing...
 
I have a feeling you didn't mean Tahiti. Also, Pitcairn has 2 shader engines each with 2 shader arrays. I think OpenGL Guy commented about this for Tahiti. Yes, it's confusing...
Yeah, make Hawaii out of it and switch shader engine and array in my post. Couldn't you come up with more distinctive names for this stuff? ;)
 
Yeah, make Hawaii out of it and switch shader engine and array in my post. Couldn't you come up with more distinctive names for this stuff? ;)
Don't blame me. I didn't come up with the names. :smile:

The main thing for people to understand is for AMD hardware a shader engine is the closest thing there is to a core in CPU terms. Each shader engine contains a rasterizer (tri setup and scan conversion) and a group of CUs.
 
I've got access to those, but I doubt my boss would be happy with that use :)

Scott: There is a solution to this problem!

Write up a quick, "Calibration Check List" and select 3 "known" units to calibrate: a DDR3 system memory (PC), a 7870 (GPU), and a PS4 (closed box), all referencing known programs for software feedback (e.g. CPUz) and using the PS4 as a closed box retail check point.

After your walk through the unit should be calibrated with a high degree of certainty ;)

All in the name of science :p
 
So is the hard-drive replaced by sliding off the shiny part of the top cover, as I understand from the german Computer Bild dismantling of PS4?
It would be nice if that shiny black cover were available in different colours, so you could pimp up your PS4 with a black-yellow, black-red, black-white... colour scheme.
 
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I wouldn't expect an aftermarket of peripheral top covers to cater for different tastes - just look at what happened to the front plates of the fat 360s many years ago. Never took off. If the shine REALLY bothers you so much, I'd suggest you just have your cover sandblasted or something like that.
 
I never had much problems with the Move controller. In Killzone, it really added to the atmosphere more than anything. Look at that Helghan city scene in the Killzone 4 thread - if your controller emits a red light in that one, you'll feel all the more as if you're in it. ;)
 
Was it confirmed before that the secondary chip would be used to offload the video encoding for the gameplay capture/streaming feature? If not, I just found this:

We were discussing how the PS4 has that second chip that’s recording the game in the background. The idea was that we should be able [access] that simply with one button press, instead of going back to the home menu and using the GUI [graphical user interface] to share. Especially right now, where a lot of users are uploading game videos to websites. It’s becoming a really big thing. Streaming, as well.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/t...ng-else-part-4-exclusive/#Qz8aWScKpeHyabzL.99
 
Was it confirmed before that the secondary chip would be used to offload the video encoding for the gameplay capture/streaming feature? If not, I just found this:



http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/24/t...ng-else-part-4-exclusive/#Qz8aWScKpeHyabzL.99

By having video encoding not affect games and run flawlessly, I think it was pretty well established that they would HAVE to have a specialized chip to do the work for stuff like remote play that were shown waaay back in Feb.
 
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