Interesting article on PS3

[London Geezer]

based on assumption that the Suzuoka patent=100% PS3

He is not the only person that finds the assumption too... presumptuous. For a simple reason that the paper was written to be general, applicable to a wide variety of products(that is, they hope it will be), with a lot of wriggle room for ways of implementation.

Anyway I don't want to spend too much time discussing why or why not (the patent) = (100% PS3). With a very-likely early 2006 release(Japan at least) just 2 years away, details should be surfacing soon. When did devs learn about PS2 details before its launch?

Devs? i think by 1997, or so i've heard. Also, do u mean full real specs or "expected, realistic but not true" specs? Cause the real specs were changed (clockspeed was changed) shortly before release if i remember correctly...

Faf might shed some light on this. Or Archie or the others...

 

[Megadrive1988]

I read that certain developers knew PS2 details around fall 1998 and were starting to build games.

I would think that 1997 was a bit too early for developers to know alot about PS2 but i dont really know.

probably top developers have already been briefed on PS3. well, there are actually PS3 games in development now. but that doesnt mean anyone has actual silicon.

 

[ERP]

Actually there is no real answewr to this question, it largely depended on who you were and who you knew. It also depends on what you consider to be information.

We speculate internally based on information and on "leaks" (or contacts) a long time before any real info is released. Sometimes it's right and sometimes it's off base. A lot of the rumours we hear only make sense much later when they are put into context by a real release of information.

But if Sony were planning an early 2006 launch I would expect information to start circulation in the next few of months and I would expect that some devs already have a reasonable idea of what Sony are trying to deliver.

 

[passerby]

Appears that I made some wrong assumptions as well. A search through IGN's news archives revealed that Sony remained tight-liped about PS2 until February 1999, when the EE was presented in a semicon conference. And the PS2 launched just 1 year later in March 2000 in Japan. That meant Sony and devs really kept quiet all the way till '99. So much for details being made known in the near future. The resident devs can't talk even if they knew...

But then Sony did announce PSP details 1.5 years before expected launch...

For what seems to be a highly parallel architecture that will once again have significant departures from previous designs, it will be nice for devs to at least know enough soon to be able to start planning and structuring code and resources.

 

[Megadrive1988]

For what seems to be a highly parallel architecture that will once again have significant departures from previous designs, it will be nice for devs to at least know enough soon to be able to start planning and structuring code and resources.

^^ very true ^^

 

[Guden Oden]

But then Sony did announce PSP details 1.5 years before expected launch...

PSP will launch Q4 this year at the latest to co-incide with 10th year anniversary of the PS brand, that does not make it 1 1/2 years after we learned of PSP. Or else I'm going senile at an early age, because I sure can't remember it being revealed in the spring of 03.

 

[passerby]

does not make it 1 1/2 years after we learned of PSP

??? PSP revealed at E3 '03 - mid May. Launch in ~Nov '04 = ~1.5 yrs.

 

[Sonic]

There's been talk of the CELL based GPU before.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=4802&highlight=visualizer