PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)

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So, it's been mentioned here how efficient the Vita OS is and how by extension that the PS4 OS should be reasonably slim..

However, I did some digging to find some hard data on figures.. And I'm kind of appalled at the actual reservation for the Vita.

One full core, which we all basically knew, but also 256MB of RAM, leaving 256MB +128MB VRAM available to developers.

Read from slide 9 onward:

http://develop.scee.net/files/presentations/jordan2011/2011JordanGamingSummit.pdf

Additional stuff:

http://develop.scee.net/files/presentations/gceurope2011/VitaIactaEst.pdf


I imagine that the majority of this reservation is set aside for potential apps that head into memory.. So a 1GB or above reserve for the PS4 doesn't seem all that bizarre especially depending on what is going on with the In-game recording situation.
 
You are "appalled" that the Vita needs 256MB to potentially run Skype, Browser, Twitter, etc. all at the same time while a game is loaded?
 
Gipsel said:
Hasn't AMD co-developed the GDDR5 standard? When did AMD's first chip with a 256Bit GDDR5 interface (HD4870) appear? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Aeoniss said:
So, it's been mentioned here how efficient the Vita OS is and how by extension that the PS4 OS should be reasonably slim..

However, I did some digging to find some hard data on figures.. And I'm kind of appalled at the actual reservation for the Vita.

One full core, which we all basically knew, but also 256MB of RAM, leaving 256MB +128MB VRAM available to developers.

Read from slide 9 onward:

http://develop.scee.net/files/presentations/jordan2011/2011JordanGamingSummit.pdf

Additional stuff:

http://develop.scee.net/files/presentations/gceurope2011/VitaIactaEst.pdf


I imagine that the majority of this reservation is set aside for potential apps that head into memory.. So a 1GB or above reserve for the PS4 doesn't seem all that bizarre especially depending on what is going on with the In-game recording situation.
Click to expand...

Very little info is known about the Vita's OS. Sony wants to put it in smartphones which means it probably isn't OrbisOS(FreeBSD9) So comparing the 2 dosen't really work.

A 15 minute 720p/1080p video takes roughly 120/190mb(respectively) so using Gddr5 to buffer the last 15 minutes of gameplay is pretty feasable. It would not impact the OS reserve too much. The feed from the GPU could be used directly for the video buffer. FPS for recorded demo's could be cut to 30fps. It might all be possible using only 1 core.

None of that would warrant the OS reserve being more than 1gb IMO.

Ne1 have insight to the technical feasibility of implementing this on a Unix/Linux system with the proposed PS4 hardware?
 
DrJay24 said:
You are "appalled" that the Vita needs 256MB to potentially run Skype, Browser, Twitter, etc. all at the same time while a game is loaded?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can talk over Skype and play game at the same time. Web browser, twitter and other apps are probably suspended in-memory when in background.

It will be interesting to see whether Gaikai for Vita is treated like an app or a game.


The cellphone manufacturers are looking for ways to stuff Android into 256MB to make cheap phones. So 256MB for apps and OS may be "standard" in the next few years.

Edit:
If you look at the KZSF slides, you can see the system heap and other categories listed separately in the game's memory layout table.
 
grndzro said:
Very little info is known about the Vita's OS. Sony wants to put it in smartphones which means it probably isn't OrbisOS(FreeBSD9) So comparing the 2 dosen't really work.

A 15 minute 720p/1080p video takes roughly 120/190mb(respectively) so using Gddr5 to buffer the last 15 minutes of gameplay is pretty feasable. It would not impact the OS reserve too much. The feed from the GPU could be used directly for the video buffer. FPS for recorded demo's could be cut to 30fps. It might all be possible using only 1 core.

None of that would warrant the OS reserve being more than 1gb IMO.

Ne1 have insight to the technical feasibility of implementing this on a Unix/Linux system with the proposed PS4 hardware?
Click to expand...

A 1080p video at reasonable bit-rate (translate, at the very, very least 8 Mbps ) is going to need about 1MB/s, which is 60MB per minute, which is 0.9 GB. And this is going on the very very low end with shitty quality.

The raw 720p@30fps video I got from gamersyde for the forza 5 analysis was ~800MB (I remember) and that was only ~4 minutes.

So you're going to need to write-off it to the HDD more or less.
 
Strange said:
A 1080p video at reasonable bit-rate (translate, at the very, very least 8 Mbps ) is going to need about 1MB/s, which is 60MB per minute, which is 0.9 GB. And this is going on the very very low end with shitty quality.

The raw 720p@30fps video I got from gamersyde for the forza 5 analysis was ~800MB (I remember) and that was only ~4 minutes.

So you're going to need to write-off it to the HDD more or less.
Click to expand...

Ideally I would think there would be selectable upload resolutions. If you are right about extreme quality being uploadable lets hope the core OS reserve is tiny^^. I couldn't imagine that upload size being fixed at 1080P, the upload would be dreadfully slow.
 
Aeoniss said:
I imagine that the majority of this reservation is set aside for potential apps that head into memory.. So a 1GB or above reserve for the PS4 doesn't seem all that bizarre especially depending on what is going on with the In-game recording situation.
Click to expand...

As we discussed earlier DVR most likely, almost certainly, will be done using the HDD.
MS is using HDD for DVR and I can't imagine that Sony would instead use precious GDDR5.

1GB for OS makes sense anyway to me.
 
If PlayTV works on PS3 with only 512MB RAM (and roughly 56MB OS footprint), Sony should be able to make PS4 DVR work on similar or higher specs.
 
gaf has worked itself into a frenzy over...something...related to a eurogamer spanish editor tweets (so they speculate digital foundry)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=634711

PS4 Memory drama. More info soon.
The info was supposedly for this afternoon but later he corrects:

-The article will be publish tomorrow, it's better like this, will be more info.
-A very interesting tech article, 24 hours delay because Sony want to make statements.

Maybe he knows something because he is translating original DF artivle?
Click to expand...


could be the onion/garlic bus stuff (most likely imo), or something more sinister? (gaf children wildly speculating everything up to a console delay)
 
Yay, drama ! I love drama. Always the best stories.

Procurement issues with the memory isn't impossible. But it's supposed to be a tech article so that wouldn't be something other than a simple headline. It's probably not that.

Down-clocking to 5gbps would be my wild guess, if they want 1.35v parts and not be stuck with only hynix as the supplier for launch. Otherwise it's the opposite, they went up to 1.5v and ludicrous speed 7gbps, that wouldn't be "drama" though. :LOL:
 
Down-clocking to 5gbps would be my wild guess, if they want 1.35v parts and not be stuck with only hynix as the supplier for launch. Otherwise it's the opposite, they went up to 1.5v and ludicrous speed 7gbps, that wouldn't be "drama" though.
Click to expand...

I would have speculated that, but I thought the PS4 FCC filing meant the RAM clocks were locked (the 2.75 top clock corresponding to 5.5gbps)?

Personally a decent 2nd speculation could be a 2-3GB RAM OS reserve bombshell. Maybe this is why Sony wants to make statements.

First guess is still Onion/Garlic info.
 
Rangers said:
I would have speculated that, but I thought the FCC filing meant the RAM clocks were locked?
Click to expand...
I don't know how it works, but wouldn't there be plenty of time to certify it again with a different frequency? It's probably software controlled PLL, GDDDR5 has low power modes and throttled operations, if it's a downclock it can't really emit more radiation. I think I remember that the higher the frequency, the higher the amount of power emited (because more current needed to fight pcb trace capacitance), so lower can't be an issue to the FCC.
Rangers said:
Personally a decent 2nd speculation could be a 2-3GB RAM OS reserve bombshell. Maybe this is why Sony wants to make statements
Click to expand...
2GB to 3GB reserved is kind of the latest rumor. That certainly wouldn't be a bombshell, and no reason to call it drama.
I do really like that they need to make a statement, it means it's complex and the info could be badly interpreted as something negative.
 
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Rangers said:
gaf has worked itself into a frenzy over...something...related to a eurogamer spanish editor tweets (so they speculate digital foundry)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=634711




could be the onion/garlic bus stuff (most likely imo), or something more sinister? (gaf children wildly speculating everything up to a console delay)
Click to expand...

"FRIDAYTON: God abandons PS4 as The Great Flood wipes out Sony HQ"

Hope everyone is okay... :LOL:
 
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