Alternative internet experience with PS3?

[Powderkeg]

Am I understanding this correctly?

Sony is essentially trying to make a sort of wireless AOL for the PS3.

Is that right?

 

[patsu]

What do you mean by "Wireless AOL" ? a wireless ISP ?

As I understand, PS3 can act as a home server (or hosting server) serving out PSP-centric media. These media may be generated on-the-fly or stored-and-serve.

 

[one]

They will need to solve many layers of problems besides technical feasbility (including operating cost and business models). The WoW folks hesitate to bring their world to consoles, so I suspect there are lot's of technical challenges too.

The most viable in the near future is probably video on demand, where video is streamed and cached/stored locally (for "rewind" and such). Even then the Cell servers may need to be beef'ed up significantly. e.g., Sun Fire X4500 has 4 Opteron cores, 16Gb RAM and 48 high-speed drives (24Tb), directly attached to the unit for high speed media delivery.

Probably this paper by IBM about server-side physics simulation indicates their plan.
http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/451/damora.html
Also this patent shows SCEI's plan of the infrastructure for massive Cell servers.
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=636614&postcount=351
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=637487&postcount=8

 

[Powderkeg]

What do you mean by "Wireless AOL" ? a wireless ISP ?

Wireless and a more privatized and content controlled network service provided by Sony.

Or maybe I'm just being thrown off by the goofy interpretation of this phrase

"The PS3 is connected to a TV. Then what's displayed in the TV? Well I'd like everyone to imagine that. The network or internet you are currently using is probably a certain face of the possibility of a network, but not all. So, including me as a developer, we want to create something like a possible future by using a network."

 

[patsu]

Probably this paper by IBM about server-side physics simulation indicates their plan.
http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/451/damora.html
Also this patent shows SCEI's plan of the infrastructure for massive Cell servers.
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=636614&postcount=351
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=637487&postcount=8

Yes. In fact, IBM went further than that:
http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/news/pressrelease/359248111.html

As a hardware enabler and entertainment entity, it makes sense for Sony to explore these possibilities. I certainly look forward to the day we can put these R&D effort to good use.

Wireless and a more privatized and content controlled network service provided by Sony.

Or maybe I'm just being thrown off by the goofy interpretation of this phrase

"The PS3 is connected to a TV. Then what's displayed in the TV? Well I'd like everyone to imagine that. The network or internet you are currently using is probably a certain face of the possibility of a network, but not all. So, including me as a developer, we want to create something like a possible future by using a network."

At this early stage, I don't think they are fixed on any business ideas yet. It could be a closed world, or an open platform for all we know.

 

[one]

Yes. In fact, IBM went further than that:
http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/news/pressrelease/359248111.html

That's the older venture and there's an agreement with SCEI too for PS2
http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/news/pressrelease/417933111.html
but not sure about what happened to this scheme. Maybe they are restructuring this grid into a Cell system?

 

[patsu]

It failed. The Butterfly grid platform has a fixed run-time model (i.e., you have to do things certain way to take advantage of it, sounds familiar ?).

I heard because individual online games are designed and implemented differently, people shied away from using it. Businesswise, I'm sure there are other considerations.

So it's back to the drawing board for them I guess. From service point of view, a peer-to-peer model may be more interesting (for non-gaming or for hosting private game sessions).

I really hope Linux OS is integral (but hidden) to the PS3 experience instead of a dual boot approach. It truly opens up a totally different world of possibilities (and Sony can earn from keyboard + mouse sales). But all these are speculations thus far.