PS3 Spec change possibility?

[Pozer]

Any chance we may see sony go to 1gig ram, or even 256 rambus + 512 ddr (756 total) or even 2 cells.

I just don't see the ps3 having the same upperhand technology-wise on the x360 that the ps2 had over the Dreamcast. Mostly the doubling of ram, 16 for the dc compared to 32 for the ps2.

 

[Qroach]

increasing the specs? no I doubt it.

 

[pc999]

Do you think it would whort more 100-150$?

 

[scificube]

bad things will happen here....

 

[Titanio]

Anything's possible, but I highly doubt it.

They've already done their job in terms of establishing it as "the most powerful console" in terms of perception, IMO. So unless devs were really giving out about something, ala the PSP and its memory upgrade, I don't think we'll see much change - and most devs seem very happy with it from a hardware POV.

 

[Qroach]

very happy with it from a hardware POV

depends what you mean by very happy

 

[Joe DeFuria]

There is no way something as drastic 50% memory increases would happen. (Clocks may differ slightly, up or down, from original targets but that's about it.)

Unless...the PS3 gets delayed significantly (1 year). No, I am not suggesting that the PS3 will be delayed....I'm saying that's the only possible reason I could see that they would be more or less forced to doing something like that.

 

[Carl B]

I don't think a 'spec increase' is out of the question, but 'specs' can refer to any number of things. I *highly* doubt an increase in RAM or in Cell count, the later simply being ruled out outright.

 

[version]

Kutaragi last week was in UK, my friend told me specs and memory increase very possible

 

[jvd]

Increasing the ram another 256 to 512 megs of ram is not going to happen .

They will most likely need redesign the whole pcb


I can see the clock range of the cell chip go up or down depending on yields . Mabye 3ghz -3.5ghz or anywhere inside there .

As for the rsx , perhaps a slight increase or decrease .

But I will assume that sony will do as little as possible to keep a spec advantage and the price as low as possible .

 

[Megadrive1988]

very likely to see minor spec adjustments. clock speed changes to Cell and/or RSX. perhaps even all 8 SPEs being active. but not an entire 2nd Cell processor.

 

[Farid]

I don't see the point or the interest of theses kind of threads.
Really vague questions that nobody could answer do not make a great start for a thread, you know.

BTW, somebody already asked this "question" and got a nice amount of baseless guestimation posted as facts.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25109

I'm not locking the thread or anything, but I expect some interesting posts, and thoughtful speculation, without forgeting to use all the conditional forms required in thoses case.

In other words, no one liners like "The PS3 will/won't have more cell!" or "It will have a clockspeed decrease/increase!"

 

[Guden Oden]

Any chance we may see sony go to 1gig ram, or even 256 rambus + 512 ddr (756 total) or even 2 cells.

NO

Christ, what's up with all this nonsense speculation? Aren't the existing specs good enough for ya or what?

 

[nAo]

Kutaragi last week was in UK, my friend told me specs and memory increase very possible

And I bet that friend of yours is also a friend of Mr. Kutaragi..

[PURE SPECULATION MODE]You can't change a very complex product design (that is likely to be launched in 6 months in Japan) overnight, maybe they can decrease or increase CPU/GPU clock as they did with the PS2, but I think it has no sense at all to expect much more than that[/PURE SPECULATION MODE]

 

[Platon]

One should never say never, alhtough in this case it is extremely tempting...

 

[ROG27]

And I bet that friend of yours is also a friend of Mr. Kutaragi..

[PURE SPECULATION MODE]You can't change a very complex product design (that is likely to be launched in 6 months in Japan) overnight, maybe they can decrease or increase CPU/GPU clock as they did with the PS2, but I think it has no sense at all to expect much more than that[/PURE SPECULATION MODE]

So, possible clock speed upgrade. Downgrade would be immaterial if happened.

 

[avaya]

So, possible clock speed upgrade. Downgrade would be immaterial if happened.

Clock speed upgrade, even a small amount will be very marketable to the general public, people still like their Hertz. It would help them get their message across of having the "most powerful system".

 

[version]

In the current implementation, every SPE and the PPE all run at the same clock frequency, since there is a single clock mesh covering them all. There is nothing in the architecture that forces this, however. You may have noticed that the SPE channel interface naturally allows for an asynchronous boundary, allowing every SPE to run at its own frequency ( but we haven't built that so far ).

So far we haven't disclosed exactly what the power of cell (at any frequency) is. Usually, once you are at the point where voltage has to be increased to achieve higher frequencies, the power goes with the cube of the operating frequency (and worse if leakage and tunneling play a significant role). Thus, for example, an increase in frequency from 3.2 to 4GHz, should result in nearly 2x the power.

The design philosophy of Cell was to design for as high an operating frequency as we could without making the processor inefficient ( if 1% more performance costs more than 3% power you would know for sure you've gone too far ) and then achieve maximum operating efficiency by running the processor at its minimum operating voltage.

Some of the graphs we've shown indicate an operating frequency somewhat over 3GHz at the minimum operating voltage. Personally I think that it is better to go to SMP configurations ( like the 2-way blade prototype IBM has shown ) if you have a higher power budget.

H_Peter_Hofstee

 

[Powderkeg]

I'm surprised so many think a clock speed increase is possible. It's not going to happen.

Even if yeilds are outstanding, way above projections, they won't increase the clock. All increasing the clock would do is decrease the yeilds which defeats the purpose of trying to have high yeilds in the first place.

It's all about money. If Sony leaves the clock alone and has better yeilds they have a lower per-chip manufacturing cost which saves them money.

How would increasing the cost save them money? Or make them money? Think they would sell more PS3's if they managed to squeeze out another 200MHZ from Cell? I don't.

 

[ROG27]

you're right....but

I'm surprised so many think a clock speed increase is possible. It's not going to happen.

Even if yeilds are outstanding, way above projections, they won't increase the clock. All increasing the clock would do is decrease the yeilds which defeats the purpose of trying to have high yeilds in the first place.

It's all about money. If Sony leaves the clock alone and has better yeilds they have a lower per-chip manufacturing cost which saves them money.

How would increasing the cost save them money? Or make them money? Think they would sell more PS3's if they managed to squeeze out another 200MHZ from Cell? I don't.

for some reason I get the feeling that just because the CELL and the memory structure were finalized at last may's e3...that RSX wasn't necessarily taped out and was still being tweaked...and is, in fact, PS3's biggest variable (with a low degree of possible variability, I might add). The CPU won't change, the memory won't change, but the RSX's specs may not have been presented in finalized form since it was/is still in development.

So, maybe the RSX has changed slightly since E3?

maybe not performance-wise but flexibility of capabilities, perhaps?