Ken Kutaragi Interview

[one]

I wonder what 'adding semantics' to media will be all about.

It refers to researchs like this.

Interesting the Cell can directly access VRAM according to that too.

It seems CELL and RSX are in NUMA, just like 2 CELLs.

 

[London Geezer]

Errr this doesn't sound too reassuring, he's basically saying that he will price PS3 wahtever he feels like it cause "it's worth it"....

Probably in this generation, PS3, will be able to be sold even for 200,000 Yen for those who want the power. Those who want it won't judge by the price. Of course if it's the case not many people can enjoy it, but some people may think it's expensive if they think game consoles as the standard. However, PS3 is built as a product overwhelmingly wanted. Car and TV are like that. You can't help wanting it. Even we, who developed it, want it. We created such a product.

 

[one]

Errr this doesn't sound too reassuring, he's basically saying that he will price PS3 wahtever he feels like it cause "it's worth it"....

Probably in this generation, PS3, will be able to be sold even for 200,000 Yen for those who want the power. Those who want it won't judge by the price. Of course if it's the case not many people can enjoy it, but some people may think it's expensive if they think game consoles as the standard. However, PS3 is built as a product overwhelmingly wanted. Car and TV are like that. You can't help wanting it. Even we, who developed it, want it. We created such a product.

According to Honda SCE proposed the price under $400, so it won't change from previous generations that much.

 

[Titanio]

According to Honda SCE proposed the price under $400, so it won't change from previous generations that much.

Yeah. I think Mr. Kutaragi is highlighting the value proposition

 

[PiNkY]

his architecture was designed to kill wasteful data copy and calculation between CELL and RSX. RSX can directly refer to a result simulated by CELL and CELL can directly refer to a shape of a thing RSX added shading to (note: CELL and RSX have independent bidirectional bandwidths so there is no contention). It's impossible for shared memory no matter how beautiful rendering and complicated shading shared memory can do.

Been smoking plenty of spliffs lately, haven't we?

 

[Bohdy]

Hmm, can anyone link to any examples or technologies in development to do with this "image ripening" that Ken is talking about? Is it that much more special than current realtime image rescaling algorithms?

Also, what is mean by "Cell Storage"?

Thanks for the translation, btw, one.

 

[caboosemoose]

Well, Sony can claim the RSX isn't related to a PC chip, but I'll believe it when i see it so to speak. The shader model 3+ bit is the suspicious but. If it's not related to a PC chip why would you be talking about shader model anything. I know it's a way of communicating the chip's capabilities, but I'd still be very surprised if the chip doesn't leverage the pipeline of NV40 even if they've tweaked and changed various bits.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well it's bound to inherit nVIDIA pipeline tech. They're not going to throw away years of experience to redesign a new pipeline architecture I imagine! I guess the key point is how the GPU accesses RAM outside it's DDR, and how communication between Cell and RSX is handled, unles they really have got some more efficient rendering technology going on, but I doubt that.

 

[caboosemoose]

I guess my point is that r500 in xbox360 looks like a fundementally new approach, whereas I suspect rsx is not, more like just NV40 with bells and a some new interfaces.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Of course ATI's approach is likely more radical, as XENOS sees the introduction of unified shaders!

 

[wco81]

He's claiming the PS3 enables more than better graphics, higher resolution. It enables a new world with its own physics interactions.

The question is, will developers utilize this capability, especially in multiplatform games?

If Epic could just use the PPE and the RSX to get a game which looks good enough, will developers be motivated to tap deeply into the SPEs for physics? Will they tailor the PS3 ports to fully exploit these capabilities or will the multiplatform business model require equalizing feature sets across all platforms?

Yes Kutaragi does have vision but do the developers and publishers share his vision?

The part about adding semantics to visual content is very interesting. Not sure if it's something which will be productized or Ivory Tower stuff. I was playing around with Mac OS Tiger, which will let you search images if you go through the trouble of adding metadata to your photo library, mainly by adding keywords to your pics in iPhoto. Very time-consuming and tedious.

If they could automate adding metadata or giving meaning to visual content, that would certainly be revolutionary. Also he talked about a Cell network maybe enhancing video content transparently without the user being aware.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

He's claiming the PS3 enables more than better graphics, higher resolution. It enables a new world with its own physics interactions.

The question is, will developers utilize this capability, especially in multiplatform games?

...

Yes Kutaragi does have vision but do the developers and publishers share his vision?

It's the goal of every developer to create a unique product. Graphics and realism is one of the most sought after methods of differentiation. So I would say getting the maximum performance of Cell for the sakes of differentiation is only natural.

Also, Sony's internal studios would naturally want to get the best out of Cell.

Once games start appearing fully exploiting Cell's model, others must follow to stay competative. So I think yes, developers will tap into Cell.

 

[caboosemoose]

Let's not get too idealistic about this - on the whole, developers are in the busniness of making money. They won't strive for graphical excellence unless they think it's necessary commercially. And you only have to look at most game titles released for both PCs and consoles to see they mostly take a "good enough" approach. Of course that's fair enough. Not many developers are in the position to burn money on developing a cutting edge 3d engine or on fine tuning high end shader effects etc. In the long run, this will be even more the case. And that's a good thing - instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel, developers will be able to use off the shelf libraries and assets and concentrate on making a good game. For example, Doom 3 is one of the best looking games for the PC ever. But in terms of gameplay, it's utterly pathetic. Because the development was all about the engine and the graphics. All IMHO of course (but dissenters vill be shot!).

 

[Xenus]

Is he saying that Cell can read directly from the RSx's Vram and vice versa because taht would save people from the whole issue they were talking about, having multiple copies of the same thing in different spots. This also sounds like it would be very helpful in the SPE's local memory.

 

[jonnyp]

Developers have strived for 5 years to utilise as much as possible of the PS2 EE so why would they suddenly stop with PS3 and Cell now? Like someone else said, competition between developers will mean that developers will try and exploit as much as possible.

 

[mckmas8808]

Yeah its pretty obvious that devs will try to utilize what the cell offers. I like the part where Ken says that a cell based product (i.e. PS3) could make DVDs look better due to the process that the cell can do. So basically my current DVD libary will look better while also watching Blu-Ray movies which will look amazing.

I have to ask the question again. *gets on knees and prays to the sky that no one will flame* Now that we are starting to get a better understanding of what the Cell processor was meant for and how it communicates with RSX, does anybody here think that it might be a little possible for Sony's in house Europe team to pull off what they showed at E3? Two examples being Killzone and Motostorm.

Please lets be fair and lets think and discuss this like grown ups please.


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Buy bubblers

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I like the part where Ken says that a cell based product (i.e. PS3) could make DVDs look better due to the process that the cell can do. So basically my current DVD libary will look better

Well Cell could definately upscale the picture to 720p or even 1080p, which would make it look better. On PC there are lot's of different stuff you can do to make dvd's look better, I can't think of any reason why PS3 couldn't do the same.

 

[Acert93]

Developers have strived for 5 years to utilise as much as possible of the PS2 EE so why would they suddenly stop with PS3 and Cell now? Like someone else said, competition between developers will mean that developers will try and exploit as much as possible.

It was my understanding that the vector units on the EE were ignored by a lot of developers.

On the CELL developers who need more power than the PPE can provide (which, ironically, is pretty powerful and should be more than enough for many games that are not overly complex) will have to turn to the SPEs. But that is how it was designed--7 SPEs just waiting to tear through your code. Basically the CELL is a better EE design and a lot more programmer friendly. I believe you can even code in C for the SPEs.

 

[mckmas8808]

Imagne what games could have been like if devs would have used the V units. I blame Sony for this because it was just too hard. If programming could have been easier games like GT4, MGS3, God of War, etc. could have been made a year or two earlier. But this time its not the case. PS3 will have alot of usable power, not power unused like the V units.
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Vapir no2

 

[function]

Imagne what games could have been like if devs would have used the V units. I blame Sony for this because it was just too hard. If programming could have been easier games like GT4, MGS3, God of War, etc. could have been made a year or two earlier. But this time its not the case. PS3 will have alot of usable power, not power unused like the V units.

You don't think the vector units in PS2 got used?