PSX2 To Replace Your PC?

rosewood writes "It is always slightly funny to watch a major news agency like CNN delve into a high tech debate. This article gives some information about Sony's new Playstation 2 and their Emotion Engine that claims 6.2 GFlops at 300mhz. Sounds interesting, but is it really enough to start replacing computers?"

Comments

Idle time

[ucblockhead]

According to MicroDesign Resources, the processor can handle 6.2 gigaflops at 300MHz. A single gigaflop equals one billion floating-point operations per second. MDR says that makes the chip two times faster than a 733-MHz Pentium III...

Ok, everyone here whose machine is currently at 100% CPU usage, raise your hand.

Now lower your hand if it is seti - 98%.

Now lower your hand if it is distributed.net - 98%.

Anyone with a hand still up?

The realy question is not what its CPU speed is, but how fast its access to peripherals is. Anyone got any info?

the competition?

[Signal 11]

Gateway Systems has issued a press release stating they have teamed up with Sonic the Hedgehog to help with their manufacturing "The guy is so fast - he replaced half our factory workers! If we could just get him to stop slamming into the gold-colored tiles on the roof we'd be all set." and Laura Croft to help with their marketing. "It was a natural fit," said the Marketing director in an exclusive interview.

But Gateway faces competition from startup VA Linux Systems, who has reportedly contracted with ID Software for their Quake guy. "He's going to be our legal department," said Eric Raymond while grinning evilly.

why replace computers?

[Mr. Penguin]

Why should we replace computers? I can think of several reasons.

My guess is that it all started with Apple. Before that, computers were used just for business. Nobody had a need for a computer at home (an IMHO, very few do now). Instead, computers were used for complex calculations and such that people couldn't (or shouldn't waste their time) doing on their on. Now, everybody's got a computer so that they can print greeting cards, e-mail their Aunt Sue, or play backgammon on Yahoo! Games. They all think that it's economical because paper costs less than Halmark cards, e-mail is cheaper than postage stamps or telephone calls, and you don't have to actually own a backgammon board. Instead, let's spend a thousand dollars on a computer, twenty bucks a month for Internet, and we won't have to buy a Halmark card for $1.50 or a stamp for $0.32.

The truth is that most computers are used for nothing more than fancy typewriters that can check your computer. Very few people actually use their Gateway or Dell for anything more than you could do much cheaper with simpler equipment. Programmers (what would we program for?), Hackers (what would there be to hack?) and businesses are the only true computer users these days.

So if Sony wants their Playstation 2 to replace home computers, then by all means let them do it! I think that I'll be content with the four that I have as I write webpages. But then again, I just might not have a job if it weren't for all the people in the world who absolutely have to be on the Internet and have to have something to look at once they get there.


Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams

PSX2 *emulating* PC

[Rayban]

There's actually an emulator project for the PSX2 right now. No, it's not to run PSX2 stuff on the PC - it's to run PC stuff on the PSX2. It uses dynamic opcode translation and some other neat stuff to emulate a full x86 system.

This means that you can boot up your copy of Win '98 (yeah right :)), plug in the USB peripherals and pretend as if the whole thing were a desktop PC.

Cool stuff indeed. It might just serve as a low-cost PC alternative.

Computers for Non-Elite: The PSX2

[Donut]

We here in the game development community are live in awe/fear of the PSX2. It is an extremely capable device, beyond it's gaming characteristics. It has FireWire. It has DVD. It has PC Card. It cost $200. It will be in every living room, bought as a game device.

But, with the right marketing and accessories, it could do everything that 80% of home computer users need in a computer. It will surf the web, do email, and play games. For way less than a PC, and no hassles with compatibility, no installation nightmares, no DirectX downloads, no problems at all.

I predict this device will sneak into America's homes and become the home computer that everyone envisioned in Sci-Fi books 20 years ago.

We here on /. sometimes forget how little of the market we represent. We are elite. Most people don't even know what we are talking about. While we argue about the suspensions in our sports cars, most of the world drives their Hondas, oblivious to our passions.

By the way, everyone thought the IBM PC sucked when it first came out. Remember?

Read the specs, please...

[RobM]

From the posts, a lot of people seems to think that this is another case of the MSX syndrome, and that the PC will destroy PSX2 as it destroyed other contenders

But if you look at PSX2 specs, you'll see it has USB ports (Keyboard, mouse, scanners, printers, Modem/ADSL, even *GASP!* floppies), a FireWire port (Video, but even big and fast HDs), and a Type III PCCard/PCMCIA Slot where you can plug lots of things, from HDs to Video Cards. And all these devices are/should be STANDARD PC PERIPHERALS, not Sony proprietary dongles.

And all this without knowing for sure what PSX2 can do by itself. Is it limited to TV video freqs, or can it do better? Will it have some expansion capabilities (RAM, internal devices) or not?

Maybe after all PSX2 will be able to replace some (lots of?) PCs, since it's not very different from what PCs are becoming these days (think of the new all-usb machines...), and as someone stated in the article, it won't fsck itself up every two games you play "since it doesn't have an HD" (since it doesn't have an idiotic OS on it, i'd say ;).

Even Linux-wise the thing is really cool, because its processor is MIPS4000 compatible and its developement system is Linux-based, so it should be easy to port Linux to it, if Sony itself doesn't do it.


If Sony doesn't do something VERY wrong and stupid with this thing (think Commodore... ;), PC resellers will see some though competition: not from a 'console', but from a Sony-branded, home-targeted PC that just happens to be called like a console.

Ciao,
Rob!

-- since English isn't my native language, corrections are welcome! --

I can already do that with my rock

[/]

I hold in my hand a simple igneous rock that is capable of 6.2 Gflops/s. Think about it: all by itself, it can solve countless (and many as yet undiscovered) laws of fluid dynamics as a throw it at people through the air. It easily and comfortably interfaces with both my hands, and it has a far finer resolution than any tv or monitor: it has a fractal-surface display. It's multi-user (we can both take turns throwing the rock) and it's fully networked (it interacts well with human hands and other rocks). It's fully backwards compatible with sedimentary rocks, and it holds great promise for future developments in becoming a metamorphic rock. And it's far more durable that this newfangled PSX2 device -- long after the last PSX2 crumbles to dust, our descendants will still be digging up rocks.

Rocks. They're not just for breakfast anymore.