From Homotron: Sony Cutting Costs With Cell-Based PS4?
Moshi Moshi! Japanese site PC Watch reports that Sony has been considering cutting costs by re-using the PS3's Cell processor in designs for the PS4, and is currently sussing out developer reactions to such a scenario.
Such a move wouldn't be unprecedented - it would essentially mimic the very moderate increase in processing power between the GameCube and the Wii, although it's anybody's guess as to whether or not Sony would be able to spin such a half-step with the same kind of panache that Nintendo gave us the Wii.
And while decreases in die size and increases in the number of processors on-board could significantly impact the processing power of any second-generation Cell hardware, the PS4 is unlikely to sit as close to the cutting edge as does the PS3:
In a long technical analysis following the report, PC Watch voices the opinion that the PS4's performance would not increase significantly from that of the PS3 if this is true. While Moore's Law and the historical rate at which Sony has shrunk processors size would suggest that the Cell processor could reach as many as 32 cores, PC Watch expects that the cost of redesigning the Cell's layout -- which has apparently remained the same as it has shrunk from 90nm to 65nm, and from 65nm to 45nm -- would be prohibitive enough that Sony will stick with around 10 cores for the PS4.
I'd be surprised to see Sony doing anything but cutting costs and saving money for the forseeable future, due to production costs, absorbed losses and a few catastrophic exploding laptop battery recalls. So in that light I do think it's likely that we won't see Sony pushing the envelope with quite the same fiscal muster as we have during this hardware cycle. That should be fine - provided Sony keeps its prices down as well.
PS4 Based On Existing Cell Processor? [GameCyte]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 2 October 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: cell processor, playstation, ps4, sony
Just because they are using the same architecture does not mean they are only going to increase performance with the PS4 with a minor improvement. My 486, Pentium Pro, Pentium 2, Pentium 3, Pentium 4 and Core 2 computers since the 90's proves that.
The Cell platform is very scalable and I wouldn't be surprised if Sony increased the clock frequency of the chip, maybe put a few more SPU units on each one and shoved multiple Cell chips into the PS4.
i hope it happens, or somethin similar it would be just like the ds/psp/mobile upgrade! upgrade! upgrade!