A new Sony patent application..

Figure 6 shows PS3 block diagram, Storage device 104 is shown along side input and display, PS3 to have HDD????

This gets more interesting, this seems to be the patent for the Visualizers.

Parallel graphics rendering using multiple graphics units each with their own VRAM.

:edit, I don't think each have their own vram looking at it again, it's one vram pool, split up.

I'll look into it more later.
 
Now it gets interesting. :p

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I'm sure we will find out some interesting things over the next days.

Fredi
 
That's interesting:

[0038] CPU 42 communicates with hard disk device 30 through drive interface 44. CPU 42 is connected to 1394 link 46 which is in turn connected to 1394 PHY (PHYsical interface) 54. Through 1394 link 46 and 1394 PHY 54, the CPU 42 is able to communicate with a host computer 60 over a 1394 interface bus 62.
...
[0043] 1. Execute requests from host computer 60 to perform commands on hard disk 30 (steps 108, 110).
...
[0048] 5. If hard disk 30 is idle, and if a pre-determined time interval has elapsed, issue a command to hard disk 30 to check its status (steps 126, 128, 130, 132, 134).

Sounds like the HD must be in.

Fredi
 
Oh wait, the hard disk could be an addon:

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the hard disk enclosure may take any of many physical forms. In the preferred embodiment illustrating herein, the hard disk enclosure is an external case made of injection-molded ABS plastic. In alternate embodiments, the hard disk enclosure could be fabricated in other plastic materials, in metal, etc. In still further embodiments, the enclosure could be designed for mounting within the computer itself, perhaps conforming to the form-factor and mounting points of a standard 5.25" hard disk device itself designed to house a smaller 3.5" hard disk device.

Fredi
 
Harware supported for depth of field blurring:

1. A rendering apparatus for showing depth of field in an image, comprising: (a) a Z buffer operable to establish a depth direction of objects in an image; (b) an image generator unit to generate an image in a just-in-focus state while writing a Z value of each of dots in the image into the Z buffer; (c) a blurring unit operable to produce a blurred image from the image in the just-in-focus state; and (d) an overwriting unit operable to selectively overwrite portions of the blurred image on the image in the just-in-focus state by comparing a preset Z value to the Z value of each of the dots in the Z buffer.

Fredi
 
It's a Layer renderer.

When was this patent submitted? For all I know this could be more GSCube related then PS3...
 
From a quick overview, it seems to describe a simple parallel rendering where groups of objects are rendered by different units.
It's interesting because it hints at the type of rendering pipeline that will be implemented in pS3, but hardly worth patenting IMHO.
Basically, there are only two approaches to parallel rendering: dividing the screen in tiles or dividing the scene in groups. The second approach, which is the one described in the patent, is more efficient since each CPU only needs to access to a subset of the scene, but requires separate full size screen buffers and Z buffers to be merged at the end, unless they have some way of sharing access to the same screen buffer...
 
"[0098] Also, in the rendering processing unit 46, it is possible to apply a rendering algorithm individually by brick unit. For example, the method for removing hidden lines and hidden surfaces used for rendering, such as the Z-buffer method, scan line method, or ray tracing method may be selected accordingly and applied. Further, the method for shading such as the flat shading method, Gouraud shading method, smooth shading method, or such may be selectively applied. "
 
Had the GSCube a "Hand-held computer interactive devic" (Page 6)? ;)

I guess this is really a PS3 patent.

Fredi
 
Fafalada said:
It's a Layer renderer.

When was this patent submitted? For all I know this could be more GSCube related then PS3...
September 6, 2002 (Japan) and September 2, 2003 (Usa).
I'm pretty sure this is the first day this patent is on line on the uspto site.
They update their online patent applications database every thursday ;)
 
Page 10, the cell part:

A computer architecture and programming model for high speed processing over broadband networks are provided. The architecture employs a consistent modular structure, a common computing module and uniform software cells. The common computing module includes a control processor, a plurality of processing units, a plurality of local memories from which the processing units process programs, a direct memory access controller and a shared main memory. A synchronized system and method for the coordinated reading and writing of data to and from the shared main memory by the processing units also are provided. A hardware sandbox structure is provided for security against the corruption of data among the programs being processed by the processing units. The uniform software cells contain both data and applications and are structured for processing by any of the processors of the network. Each software cell is uniquely identified on the network. A system and method for creating a dedicated pipeline for processing streaming data also are provided.

Fredi
 
...

It's a Layer renderer.

When was this patent submitted? For all I know this could be more GSCube related then PS3...
Didn't you already file a patent claim for this? If you had, you would have grabbed SCEI by the balls and claim millions...
 
Fafalada said:
It's a Layer renderer.

When was this patent submitted? For all I know this could be more GSCube related then PS3...

It would seem to logically follow that with people like Okamoto stating the GSCube was being used as an internal research tool into their next generation platform (if you remember back to 2002) and it fits in with what I think many were anticipating after the Cell patent. I know I was under the impression it would be a layering technique as I said here - which means you probably said it a page before ;)
 
What the ...?

KUDOS SCORING SYSTEM WITH SELF-DETERMINED GOALS

Abstract

A scoring method and system for determining points in a game. Goal-based points are determined as a function of a player achieving a goal set by the player that is not predefined by the game and are used to determine the player's status in the game, such as whether the player advances to a next level. Subjective style points are awarded if the player performs feats of style that are not necessary tasks of the game, depend upon the type of game, and may include sliding, spinning, jumping, blocking an opponent, passing an opponent, and avoiding obstacles. Objective skill points may be combined with subjective style points and goal-based points. Alternatively, one of these three types of points may be modified as a function of one or both of the other two types of points.

Why is this in the patent? That's normaly a software only problem and has nothing to do with hardware. Does this meen there is direct harware support for kudos scoring? Why?

Fredi
 
Some interesting points:

[0083] Further, the grouping unit 44 checks the object characteristics and LOD information of B-boxes determined to be within the rendering area based on the clipping information, and based on object characteristics and LOD information groups identical or similar B-boxes together, and creates a group list (S16).

They group objects dynamically based on LOD, to balance the load on the different CPUs.

[0072] The parallel rendering engine 122 divides the entire storage region of the image memory 126 into multiple regions based on multi-path command from the main CPU 110. Using these multiple divided storage regions, it implements rendering of a three-dimensional object by subspace in parallel and generates divided images in the respective subspaces. Further, the parallel rendering engine 122 does Z-merge processing of each divided image rendered in parallel to consolidate image data in one of the divided regions. Thus, it generates one consolidated image. Z-buffer method, scan line method, ray tracing method, and such are used during rendering to remove hidden lines and hidden surfaces.

This hints to a mix of hardware and software rendering, or even to a completely software rendering pipeline. Very impressive.
 
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