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Distributed Playstation
withinavoid writes "News.com has a story up about the next generation Playstation 3. Apparently the game developers are asking for a 1000 times performance increase and that's just not possible, so they are looking at distributed computing as a possibility. "
is obviously the way forward. They can link them through the new Wireless networks that are propagating all over the US - won't that be an exciting prospect!
This sounds great ... ermmm but how are they goning to implement that ?
;)
... i think they're over zealous with the news of seti over performing hehe ...
...
... but as we all know, sony was never known for being a "cheap" brand ;(
Previous experience with 8xP3 cluster rendering PVM via 100bt already shows some signs of information passing problems, i guess they won't be using it for rendering then
But its still interesting at what the internet could offer for them
Maybe the distrbuted net might be in the "neighbourhood" area rather then internet based hehe
I really hope they'll lower their prices no matter what they come up with
Its always good to see technology being pushed, but I really can't see the need for '1000' times the power for games. There is so much untapped power in the current generation consoles at the minute - compare early playstation games with the most recent, tekken 1 comparred to tekken 3 for example. In a year or so time when developers have much more experience with the hardware, I expect to see the same sort of leap. developers wanted the hardware sped up so much just sounds to me like laziness.
My other concern is how would they achieve the distribute network. The thing I like about my consoles is that I stick in the disk/catridge and play, no pissing around. I hack on my PC, I play on my console, and thats the way I like it. If I have to start into configuraing and debugging (which as it gets more complex is bound to happen) then the whole reasn for the console goes out the window.
I've heard way too much talk about consumer applications of distributed computing lately. The trick is they are not really consumer apps at all, but merely a front. If you have a distributed network with an installed base of 10 Million machines, that's a lot of idle time you can sell off to other companies. And you can bet that that's exactly what Sony has in mind.
Think about it: the memory bandwidth on the PS2 is at least twice as fast as the FASTEST network connections available. That's nothing to say for the pitiful 2-3Mb cable pipe that is available to most people.
The graphics are what the developers want to see the improvement in. I don't think you are going to see any improvement in performance in this area brought about by distributed computing. If it's possible, I'm really curious as to how.
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Can anybody explain me how one could use distributed computing for realtime stuff?
I mean, I can imagine(being NO expert), that distributing all the data, waiting for it to be processed and sent back, takes more time then actually doing it yourself...in such a case.
or am I wrong...?
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it aint all _that_ bad,.... right?
Broadband? We would need fibre optic, gig per second kinda speeds.
Also even with these kinds of speeds, how would you keep a game in sync? what about errors? how would you save? distributed too? What would keep me from cheating by worse, using the PS3 to bypass the SSSCA law and use it as a computer to share my mp3s?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Linux support just like the PS2? It would be one hell of an cheap beowolf cluster.
(And you can run GT3 when you're bored!)
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Imagine how many MIPS 4K cores you can fit in 300mm^2 in 4-5 years.
AAAAAAAH! This is my livlihood. 300mm^2 makes me scream. If you think the average consumer will be able to afford a game console that has a CPU that's 17mm on a side, I want your credit rating. Are you related to the guy whose name appears to be "Object of Envy"?
Half that size isn't bad. If you had mentioned about cramming CPUs into 150mm^2 or even 100mm^2 (I think the Game Cube processor is below 50mm^2), that would have been more realistic.
... As far as I can tell from the article, they're talking about *internally* making the PS3 a multi-processor system.
They are looking into basing the architecture on some of IBMs research into distributed computing (specifically, something called grid computing).
They are *not* talking about *actual* distributed computing using the PS3 - this is purely about the internal design being based on a distributed model to get more performance.
Well I was excited about all the Cell development and this PlayStation 2 stuff, but Ken Kutargai (the guy behind playstation and SCEI president) recently made some very grim statements at the South Korean PlayStation 2 launch. On the topic of PS3 Kutaragi-san said "Nothing has been started yet." He made some very grim statements about online gaming too saying; "If broadband connections capable of delivering 10Mb/s are affixed to game consoles, the industry as we know it will be over. By that time, perhaps 2005 or later, games would be available for download rather than sold in stores." This news came right after many analyst's came out saying how skeptical they were about Sony's online plans. This comes right after the Nintendo-Square and Nintendo-Capcom deals, which by the way Kutaragi mad, summoning top Square officials to the SCE headquarters to explain the deal, as he was out of town when the deal was made (the Square one) and had no prior knowledge about it. The memory card shortage doesnt help much either.
Spilled.net
I find this to be quite amusing. Distributed computing? Biotechnology? Developers demanding 1,000 times more computing power? All of the developers I know that have touched the PS2 have demanded fewer processors and an architecture that makes a semblance of sense. You can't distribute the computing on a game system when .05 seconds is a nauseating lag. Maybe if you were running a MMPORG, you could use each console to compute the region of space that they were in. Even then the most computationally costly part of gaming, the rendering, needs to be done locally in real time.
The only way this could even make sense is if Sony was focusing on massively multiprocessor systems, an idea that seems unlikely considering A: the relative costs and B: sony's claim of shared memory.
Did the Blue Meanies spike the water supply?
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Is there any harm in aspiring for these things to come true? What if Sony pulls off distributed computing for the PS3? Will the people here still be saying "that's stupid"? What if Sony has biotech running on the PS6 or PS7? If it wasn't for people coming up with crazy ideas would anything get invented? Innovation is important part of pushing things forward. If nobody tried to do the crazy things, then how would we know if it would be possible?
When Kenndy said let's go to the moon. What if eveyrbody had listened to the poeple shouting "It can't be done, it's stupid, it's a dumb idea." There are people out there working on fusion, anti-matter, FTL travel, grand unified theory, cures for cancer, etc... Are these people stupid and dumb? Hell, all Sony wants is a 1000 fold increase from the PS2. If they want to put biotechnology in their PS6, fine whats the problem with that?
You want to hear about something stupid and dumb? What about a "nextday delivery service?" or "being able to hear actors talk in movies?" or "going to the moon?" Frick! now these are stupid and dumb ideas.