Official PS3 Thread

[MfA]

Itanic would need double that number of physical registers ... and this is just for 4 thread contexts, nevermind the more massive parallelism Sun is talking about.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I remember an Intel paper that talked about a MT version of Itanium without that many registers...

Yes you are correct that while the EV8 has for each thread ( in MT mode ) only 64 architectural Registers ( 32 + 32 ), but it still has 256 architectural Registers available for a single thread if we are using it as a nice 8-way machine

It's true that Itanium 1 & 2 have tons of registers for one single thread and having 4 Threads running in parallel would require to quadruply the number of Registers... yet that could come in the space that is now used by x86 HW compatibility or at least part of it

 

[Saem]

Sweet Zombie Jeebus that's a lot of registers.

 

[V3]

Some more news from

http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20030502S0046

Sony seeks wider reach for game ICs

By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
(05/02/03 02:16 p.m. EST)

Tokyo Sony Corp. is drastically revamping its semiconductor strategy: It will combine the chip operations of its headquarters with those of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., then take the devices developed by the latter unit for the company's popular Playstation 2 game console and steer them toward a wide range of consumer electronics applications.

The company said it will also develop applications for the Cell processor that Sony is jointly developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp.

In charge of the overhaul is Ken Kutaragi, president and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, who was recently named executive deputy vice president of Sony's main office overseeing the Broadband Network Co. (BBNC), an internal company. The broadband operation will play a key role as incubator for next-generation products based on Sony semiconductors, such as TVs, servers and consumer products.

We will create as many applications as possible for leading-edge semiconductors, Kutaragi told EE Times this week. Our foundation will be the semiconductor business, which will foster new applications for volume platforms like Playstation 2. We need volume.

The semiconductor operations of Sony Computer Entertainment had been relatively independent from the corporate parent's semiconductor business. The first-generation Playstation used ASICs supplied by LSI Logic Corp., for example. Sony Computer Entertainment built the core engines of Playstation 2, the Emotion Engine processor and high-end Graphics Synthesizer at a fab jointly owned with Toshiba and its own Nagasaki fabs, respectively.

All that is about to change. Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment have announced plans to invest ¥200 billion ($1.7 billion) to develop 65-nanometer process technology and construct a 300-mm wafer fabrication facility. The companies simultaneously announced they have integrated the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer into a single chip with 53.5 million transistors built in a 90-nm process. The product, which Sony calls EE+GS@90nm, is set to begin volume production.

Under Kutaragi's plan, the EE+GS@ 90nm will first be used in other Sony consumer products, and then introduced on the merchant market. The first nongame applications will emerge three years after the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer first appeared in the Playstation 2. The Cell processor, however, will be available for wider use in other applications from the start, even as it serves as the core engine for Sony's next-generation gaming system, often called Playstation 3. Within about a month, Sony says it will announce a new application that BBNC has developed for the EE+GS@90nm.

Satoru Rick Oyama, senior vice president of Lehman Brothers Japan, applauded the push to find new appli- cations for the game console chips. If the devices are used only in the closed Playstation world, the technology would not evolve, he said.

The yield rate of Sony's semiconductor production will be hard to match, bolstered by the EE+GS@90nm's high-volume production for the Playstation 2, Kutaragi said. This highly efficient technology is waiting for immediate use, he said. The next-generation Playstation will probably take the form of a game box, though it will not be a mere game machine.

I am very much interested in how Sony will promote PS3 as a new product for the home, because it will not be a simple game machine, said Lehman Brothers analyst Oyama.

 

[Deepak]

Shit V3! I was about to post the same article!!!

 

[Paul]

I guess i'll post this here.

You guys seeing that GT4 interview? Well I find this to be interesting.

Detailing and dynamics of GT4 will be extraordinary, but according to Yamouchi it's still only about 10 per cent of what will be achievable with future generation hardware.

Future gen hardware.. PS3 anyone? Could Yamouchi and his team have some tentative specs about ps3 from Sony? Or am I just looking into this a little too much.

I really could not imagine what a Grand Turismo game would look like on PS3, I'm thinking they will truely look photorealistic, like some high quality maya renders.

Sometimes, interesting things are found in little details

 

[maskrider]

I guess i'll post this here.

You guys seeing that GT4 interview? Well I find this to be interesting.

Detailing and dynamics of GT4 will be extraordinary, but according to Yamouchi it's still only about 10 per cent of what will be achievable with future generation hardware.

Future gen hardware.. PS3 anyone? Could Yamouchi and his team have some tentative specs about ps3 from Sony? Or am I just looking into this a little too much.

I really could not imagine what a Grand Turismo game would look like on PS3, I'm thinking they will truely look photorealistic, like some high quality maya renders.

Sometimes, interesting things are found in little details

Side track a bit.

Talking about Yamauchi (Polyphony Digital), this is from someone (killbin) working in a video game company in Japan (who said he worked on Legend of Dragoon) who knows him and Fumito Ueda (ICO team), he regards them as very visionary people.

GameFAQs ICO forum link talking about NICO

Not sure if you will believe this kind of source, I tend to believe what he said.

Anyway, it is an interesting read.

 

[kenneth9265]

paul, do you have a link to that GT4 interview?

 

[Paul]

It's on the huge "the making of GT4" picture

http://forum.granturismo.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1188854#post1188854

Your from pcvsconsole? Welcome.

 

[kenneth9265]

Thanks, if that statement is true, We are in for biggest and most exciting jump in gaming since going form the 16 bit to the 32 bit systems!

 

[Paul]

I have no question that the leap from ps2 > ps3 will be greater than that of psone > ps2.

 

[kenneth9265]

Wow! the PSX - PS2 was a leap was a pretty good leap, but to me, it was nowheres as big as big as leap as it was from the SNES to the N64.

 

[Paul]

You can ponder on this for a while.

 

[kenneth9265]

Do you really thing that next gen console with have FFX's CGI graphic? That would I would like to see happen on the PS3 if it possible

 

[Paul]

Basicly, games next gen are going to look like FMV's. I have no question that a final fantasy game for ps3 will look like FFX CG, that's about what to look foward too.

Think of it this way, if it doesnt hit that bar, than where will it hit? FFX in game stuff are comparable to the CG's only that the image quality isn't as good and the textures aren't as high res. PS3 will do this with ease.

 

[kenneth9265]

If the PS3 can do FFX's CGI, that it can easily pass up any Doom III engine-like game in the future. That would be more than good enough for me!

 

[Paul]

I reckon you could throw 10X DOOM III at Figure 6 in the Cell patent(ps3) without breaking a sweat.

 

[kenneth9265]

DX10?????

 

[Paul]

No, I mean you could throw 10 times that of DOOM III at Figure 6 without breaking a sweat, meaning it would be no big deal, the system could handle it with ease.

 

[kenneth9265]

Dammm!