Slashdot Mirror
IBM To Make CPU For Sony's PS3
SmasKenS writes "So, not only did they get to make the CPU for Nintendo's GameCube, now they work for Sony too. Saw this on voodooextreme first, they also got a link to BBC News." Now, granted, this is several years away from actually happening, (projected date of 2004) but the costs (and profits) that are involved are staggering.
Now we're gonna get "Peace, Love, and PS3" on our sidewalks.
Well, I guess thats one way to crush the gamecube/xbox. With the marketting involved, just the very mention of 'ps3' is enough to make people shiver.
Why buy xbox vapor, when you can buy ps3 vapor?
The platform isn't that complicated. The graphics might be, but you could incrementally improve those. And a place like Sony could crank out the manufacturing engineering in a couple of months.
Must just want to spread out the innovation space to give the PS2 time to make cash.
In three years, PS2 will be a board-game spinner compared to the cards available for desktops.
Maybe they're looking for the next great parts shortage so they can order a zillion of those...
--Blair
I misread the post, I'm a idiot who can't read, sorry!
:(
-henry, the idiot
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
I read through the posts that showed up here quickly and the posts over at voodooextreme and I think people are a bit confused.
The fact that IBM and sony announced their partnership here doesnt mean that they're switching gears already for the ps3. All it means is that they are announcing the beginning of development for the platform. How long did the ps2 take to develop? the x-box? a few years. This is nothing new in the way of business relations.
What I am excited to hear about though is the kinds of technologies that IBM is planning on using or hoping to use in their new chips... They have a few years to develop it so I assume they have some high goals!
I also wonder what platform squaresoft is going to contract to next. will they stick with sony? renew their relationship with nintendo? join the evil empire (scary thought)?
--onyx--
If IBM can really implement a supercomputer in the PS3, how many will Saddam Hussein buy?
Rangers Lead the Way!
The GSCube, Sony's high-end graphics workstation is supposed to be able to handle 64 sets of Emotion Engines/Graphics Synths.
The PS3 is (or was) expected to be equivalent to 16 sets of EEs/GSs and is due sometime in 2005
How does Intel's new microtransistor technolgy fit in? Will this unanticipated advance be duplicatable by IBM by then? I know that production chips aren't due until, when, 2007?
Will the console maker that follows PS3 be able to sign with Intel for chip fab?
I *MUST* know - The future of Gran Turismo depends on it!
GTRacer
- Wi11 r4c3 ph0r b33r
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Seriously, though, it isn't the hardware that makes a console. What matters is who the companies that make games develop for. You could have the best system in the world, but if you don't get the Squaresofts of the world writing games for you, it won't amount to anything. While I pine for the days when writing your own 3d engine that beat all of the others was the mark of excelence, nowadays it is the artfulness and resourcefulness of the game design that matters. The key, now, will be attracting the developers to one side or the other. Part of that will be done by market forces, but part of it will also be done by how friendly the company is to developers. During the PS1/N64 competition, Sony showed they were superior in this aspect, as many of Nintendo's long-time supporters switched over to sony, even though their platforms were comparable (sony's had a little better overall performance for the cost, but not too much...). Anyways, we'll see what happens now, when the mists clear.
- Rei
You know when it's okay to shout fire in a crowded theatre? When it's on fire.
" "The result will be consumer devices that are more powerful than IBM's Deep Blue super-computer, operate at low power and access the broadband internet at ultra-high speeds," the statement added."
It's really great to see that all of IBM's investments in basic research in naoscale technologies will find their apotheosis in making Lara Crofts boobs jiggle EXACTLY like Angelina Jolie's. God I can't wait for the future to be here.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
I guess BBC News reads Slashdot too, then...</TROLL>
(I'm sorry, I just wanted to see what it felt like to b*tch about this fine site repeating itself)
main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
IBM's not exactly a monopoly -- atleast not since the trail. They're rarely #1 at something but they're almost always second or a close third in nearly everything to do with computers. DB2, Lotus, their hardware (harddrives, processors, etc.) are all good and sometimes they'll lead for a short while. I guess their trick is to develop the technology then license it off to competing companies. Without IBMs tech some companies couldn't keep up (wheres Quantom now?). Hence I don't consider them a monopoly in any field -- but they're a strong player in nearly all of them.
Rod Taylor
Intel spends billions on each new architecture.
Someone you trust is one of us.
...is if there is a major breakthrough in quantum computing this year.
That's the joy of the computer industry:
a few years in the future, you could be using completely different technology.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
at Fry's Electronics here in Houston. However, that part of town was hard hit by last week's flood so they might not be in sellable condition.
Instead of IBM developing 2 chips, why couldn't they develop just one and send it to both Nintendo and Sony. Think they would notice? ;-)
;-)
It *would* lower the hardware production costs if Nintendo and Sony ever "standardized" on commodity hardware. Nahh, they'll never go for it, it would make too much sen$e.
Wasn't deep blue just a gaming console anyways? I believe all it did was play chess. ;-)
No Comment.
Although IBM is a big bad company, they have retained "cool" status because of the following (in no particular order):
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Heh I quite agree with the square-support rule as well. FFX is great - played it (in japanese...) at E3 and was thouroughly impressed already, even in their limited demo. XI looks interesting as well, even though not a whole lot is known about it yet.
... i guess this ends my way-offtopic rant ...
As for the Xbox. I was actually just discussing this with my friend (Xbox zealot) and even he is questioning some of the decisions and strange information leaks coming out of the MS-Xbox camp. Such things as Xboxes being shipped without any broadband hardware, dvd support (ie you have to buy the remote!), and a slew of other wierd problems.
The broadband issue has already come up. The only game that has kept my interest in the xbox, Halo, is NOT being shipped with support for broadband. They were not forthcoming on what exactly this means, but I assume it's that they didnt get the networking SDK in time for the game to be released on shipping, but the hardware is still in the xbox for when they update the game. (is everyone ready for patches for their console games? Yay, great.) Scary thought being that they will be releasing a broadband addon (100$ probably) later to enable the support (so 400$ for a full networked gaming system, whereas both sony and nintendo are shooting for 300$ max).
This all comes down to microsoft's release-wait-see-patch-wait-see-fix-repeat scheme of everything - "lets release the xbox as soon as possible, and wait to see how well it does, then we'll add stuff/fix problems. yah." I dont think that is going to fly in the loyalty-driven console market. People are going to realize that microsoft is really just along for the ride, and the xbox will go the way of the Jaguar (good tech, bad implementation).
But all of the above is obviously pending some offical release of info, or maybe even the actual hardware.
BTW the xbox hardware at E3 was relatively interesting... midtower boxes with dvd drives and nifty faceplates. It was said a couple times that it was only really running at half effeciency - mainly that the sound was being processed in software for some reason.
... ANYWAY
--onyx--
If this one is going to be made by IBM it will propably be some kind of PowerPC in a future version, and this means that OSs like Linux, NetBSD and OpenBSD will be able to run on it with little modifications, and that just sounds like something that i could go for.
There isn't much like the scent of a fresh harddisk
The new chip will be designed for the broadband era, allowing the games machines and other "intelligent" devices to communicate with each other or connect to the internet.
The three companies aim to design a "super-computer on a chip" with a wide variety of consumer applications, they said in a joint statement.
The chip will also be capable of massive parallel processing - dividing up complex or time-consuming processing tasks among many chips - and could eventually be used in computer products.
Oh, yeah, it'll play video games, too.
Sony To Do list 1. Games to Graphically Soup up for PS3!!! Burger Time Ikari Warriors Pole Position Qbert
This isn't a new role for IBM at all. IBM was contracted to make and assemble Atari Jaguars. As most /.er know, they fab Transmeta's chips too.
IBM one of the best fabribation capacities in the industry, so it should be no surprise they would built PS3's.
Great so only Garry Kasparov can beat any of the games...
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
They developed the IBM PC, which was expressly designed to be cloned, hacked, modified
Bullshit! It was not meant to be cloned, hacked, or modified! Remember how Compaq got their start? By making a clean-room copy of the IBM BIOS. In the early days of the PC, IBM was just as tight about their hardware as Apple was. Eventually, though, other companies started copying them and the PC was born. That "commodity hardware" didn't really start until the mid to late 80s, after Compaq had successfully created a PC clone. (I think - my dates may be wrong.)
Eventually IBM had to let go of the PC, but it wasn't until after they were stung with anti-trust lawsuits.
--
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
In a seemingly unrelated story, Saddam Hussien walked into a Electronics Boutique store in Baghdad today and preordered 1,000 Sony PS3's. Chris "Tesing proves, testing works!"
Maybe Apple should use these for the newer Macs. Anything is better than trying to get those chips in short supply/high cost from Motorola....
Cingular Wireless has just started a billboard campaign the irritates the hell out of me. The billboards have a peace sign, a smiley face, and the Cingular logo. Underneath it reads: "Peace, Happiness, Cingular."
Gee, how creative...
IBM will re-introduce the Microchannel bus, claim that the PS3 is the next generation IBM PS2...
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
from the article:
The three companies aim to design a "super-computer on a chip" with a wide variety of consumer applications, they said in a joint statement.
"The result will be consumer devices that are more powerful than IBM's Deep Blue super-computer, operate at low power and access the broadband internet at ultra-high speeds," the statement added.
me:
Must resist urge...must...resist...must...res...
WOW CAN YOU IMAGINE A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THOSE?!
please shoot me. for the love of god, shoot me...
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010313S0113
.10 micron and running at 1 teraflops. It's fully scalable and will form the backbone for a true broadband internet.
In short: by 2004/2005, IBM, Sony, and Toshiba will have developed the Cell processor, fabbed at
Neal Stephenson's science fiction does seem to be self-fullfilling, doesn't it?
Ken Kutaragi speaks of this massively parallel beast in biological terms, alludes to peer to peer-ness on several levels, and says the OS that will run on the processors will be Linux-like.
Now if that's not a made-for-Slashdot story, I don't know what is.
The Playstation 3 is never directly mentioned, but given the very similar BBC story, we can assume that the PS3 will be one of the Cell processor's main uses.
Too bad it's not Intel. I was actually looking forward to a combination of the two commercials' sounds at the end... Imagine if you will:
"Bling bling bling BLING - Play-sta-tion"
It's got a certain rhythm
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
I wonder if it'll have excessive features like more than 640K RAM...
Mf
Is Irn-Bru anything like the Cuban Iron Beer?
Actually, I think it *is* the hardware that makes the system, and I think history bears it out. Let's see:
Atari invents the home Pong console, practically the first of its kind.
Other companies build various other boxes, some of which can play more than one game. The original Pong systems were outclassed, but then--
The Atari 2600 comes on the scene and beats out the Odyssey, the Vectrex, and other consoles, mostly because of better hardware design. The cartridge format allowed for more and better games, and the hardware made better games possible. Therefore the software developers came, because the platform was powerful and relatively easy to write for.
Nintendo comes along, and no one in this country had ever heard of them. Yet their console had such technical superiority and performance that the 2600 was doomed, and game makers sold their souls into Nintendo slavery just to get the right to code for it.
Other systems, such as Sega's SMS, had good hardware, but Nintendo had already captured the mindset of the market and most of the software makers. There does come a point at which it's too late, despite technical merits, but it's technical merits which turn the tide.
That's why, fast forward to the days of the PS versus N64, the PS won. The Nintendo had a better processor, but overall the PS was more advanced--it had CDs instead of cartridges. Game developers loved the CDs and hated the cartridges. To program a game into the small space of a N64 cartridge took more effort than if you have a full 650MB at your fingertips. Also, you don't need to license a proprietary cartridge format. So ultimately it was the superiority of the hardware which won over the game developers.
I think this is going to be more and more the case, since there have been no major advances in gameplay for years. What is going to get more important is photorealism, and the platform which can offer the best realism and still have ease of programming on its side will win the developers come the next generation of consoles.
We see the same thing in the PC gaming community, with video cards. 3DFX got game developers to code to their proprietary library because the performance was so much better and the effects the game devs could create were so much more intense. That abrubtly fell off when nVidia started making cards that were as good that people started buying, so the developers dropped the 3DFX-only route in favor of DirectX and OpenGL, which can be used with any card. But there was a period when 3DFX was so superior that gamers were only buying Voodoo cards, and so it made sense to code to the 3DFX cards only.
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."--Tacitus, *The Annals*
Uh...this was in Wired a couple issues ago. The PS3 in its current state is 16 PS2 boards on top of a high bandwidth crossbar. They want to keep the number of individual CPUs but don't want to have 16 PCBs in a single box. IBM as far as I know is the only company right now that has the ability to get four or more processor cores on a single die. From the stuff I've read I think the PS3 will really be a techno wonder, much moreso than even the PS2. The little game consoles we've been buying for the past couple years have been rendering engines primarily and thinking machines secondly. When you've got 16 processors on a high bandwidth crossbar you've got huge potential for not only media but also for logic and physics. Rendering millions of textured polys is a nice but its even nicer when those millions of polys make up a realistic looking cloth swaying, feathers of a bird buffeting in the wind, or gravel realistically being kicked up behind a car.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
and while they talked about the ps2 just after the ps1 came out (1995 ps1, not that new thing), they mentioned a road map for the playstation series which consisted of Playstation 2 for 2000 and Playstation 3 for 2005. They also mentioned at the time the projected processing power they wanted to have in each of those. While they didn't know what ps2 would be, they knew they wanted roughly a 100 fold increase in power for the ps3. Looks like it's coming true. This is hardly new news. It's just finally coming to light and entering preproduction.
Nintendo64 used a custom designed R4300i, not a R3400.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...