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Playstation 3 Gathering Components

briancnorton writes "Cnet has a story about how Sony has licensed some Rambus connection technology for the playstation 3. One technology is for chip-to-chip communications and the other for chip-to-RAM at over 100 Gbps. These are all parts of the 'Cell' processor system that is supposed to do over '1 trillion mathematical calculations per second.'"

433 comments

  1. O_O_O by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder when it will launch?

  2. 1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on a consumer console that's due out in a couple of years.. I'll believe it when I see it, Sony. Do they really need to hype up the PS3? It's going to sell better than blank cds no matter what.

    1. Re:1 trillion ips by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      Remember the cinematic effects rendering and the 'groundbreaking emotion engine' in the PS2 up till its launch? And then it barely leapfrogged the Dreamcast in terms of performance.

      If they really had such advanced technology, would they really waste it on a 200$ video game console, instead of using it to completely dominate every aspect of the computing/tech industry?

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:1 trillion ips by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember the cinematic effects rendering and the 'groundbreaking emotion engine' in the PS2 up till its launch? And then it barely leapfrogged the Dreamcast in terms of performance.

      It was actually *much* better than the Dreamcast, but it required a different mindset in order to work with the hardware. The graphics hardware in the Dreamcast was very similar to that of the PC, whereas that of the PS2 was much stranger to the uninitiated.

      Here's hoping that Sony funnels a reasonable percentage of the PS3's power toward making thing headache-free for developers, instead of even more complex.

    3. Re:1 trillion ips by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      I've yet to see a PS2 title that wouldn't have been possible on dreamcast. It does some neat effects, rendering half the resolution (320x480) in two passes rather than the 640x480 the DC did, but nothing that's leaps and bounds beyond.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    4. Re:1 trillion ips by oliverthered · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No lets hope that developers pop there minds out of the linear programming concept for a while.

      A good bit of prolog and Lisp should help in the training, then drop what they've learnt back into more predictable languages like C.

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    5. Re:1 trillion ips by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      No lets hope that developers pop there minds out of the linear programming concept for a while.

      That would be great, but that's not what I meant. If amazing parallel performance comes at the expense of having to write games entirely in hand-pipelined code for RISC vector processors with 256 registers, then that's not a win.

    6. Re:1 trillion ips by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      you must be insane. You really think that Gran Turismo Concept gfx are possible on the DC? Get a grip, man.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    7. Re:1 trillion ips by man2525 · · Score: 1

      I've heard that the music and sound for Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty had to occur in some tiny amount of memory, like 1MB of RAM. So there are some game studios that can fully utilize the PS2 hardware, but not that many.

    8. Re:1 trillion ips by oliverthered · · Score: 1

      If the code is well written for a parrell architecture then the compiler should be able to do a reasonable job at sorting things out.

      A compiler that can understand locks would be handy, a more fine-grained locking mechanism would be useful too.

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    9. Re:1 trillion ips by Gizzmonic · · Score: 4, Informative
      The PS2's video hardware "much" superior to the Dreamcast? What video hardware? The PS2 has no dedicated VRAM, which means:

      1)Limited amounts of color can be loaded at one time...every notice how bland the color is in most PS2 games? Many look like Quake 1, studded in brown, green, and grey.

      2)Not too many textures can be loaded at once. Most PS2 games have chunky, flat textures.

      Also, the PS2 can't do antialiasing without a huge performance hit, so lots of games "cheat" by blurring. And boy, does that ever get annoying when playing redeyed into the wee hours...

      The PS2 in general is more powerful than the Dreamcast, I won't debate that. It seems to have be designed to act as a node for a huge parallel computer (why this was done for a game console is anyone's guess).

      But in terms of texture quality, color depth, etc, the Dreamcast wins out. Take a look at Phantasy Star Online; the graphics there beat any PS2 game out there. PS2 graphics are chunky, dull, and blurry, with few exceptions.

      --
      (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
    10. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually the graphics pretty well are...

      the number-crunching behind the engine on the other hand....

    11. Re:1 trillion ips by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      The PS2 has no dedicated VRAM

      So by that you mean that the dedicated VRAM in the PS2 is somehow now, um, dedicated VRAM?

    12. Re:1 trillion ips by Kirby-meister · · Score: 1

      That's called NTSC.

    13. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technically it is how NTSC works, however a real NTSC video source has each field being drawn from the same real-life scene. This means that lighting and blending cues on one field are effected by the other field which isn't yet displayed. The PS2 doesn't do this, which causes the weird, shimmering artifacts you see on PS2 games, and which you never see on other systems that just render the whole frame at once, even if they only show one field of it before another frame is rendered.

      In short, the PS2 took a shortcut, and payed for it with ugly games.

    14. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've yet to see a PS2 game that looks as good as the DC's LeMans 24 hour.

      No jaggies, rich textures, vibrant colors. And it came out years ago.

      Face it, the PS2 has cheesy and lame hardware, even if there are some good games for it. It barely competes with the dead and departed Dreamcast, and the Xbox and Gamecube blow it away.

    15. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think PS2 I think JAGGIES :-0

    16. Re:1 trillion ips by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      "And it came out years ago."

      Erm... so did the PS2.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    17. Re:1 trillion ips by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      "actually the graphics pretty well are..."

      no they aren't - even through my VGA adaptor.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    18. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a PS2 and about 10 games for it... what are these shimmering effects you speak of? How can I reliably reproduce these effects? I just want to know what you're talking about.

      Is a PS2 in PAL mode immune to these effects?

    19. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe not yours, but.....what about through MY VGA adapter?

    20. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Farily spot on analysis, good sir. You get the Sony debunker's cookie award.

      However, the PS2 and Playstation do have dedicated VRAM, but it is a miniscule amount in both cases. Ever read a game review where the reviewer says, "this 2D game looks great, even on the PS2!" That's because the VRAM is so small that it's taken for granted that 2D games will look horrible on these two systems, compared to on other systems.

      Comparing Dead or Alive 2 on Dreamcast and PS2 shows the huge difference texture quality can make, too.

    21. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's usually refered to as "jaggies" and manifests itself as an aliasing effect in moving textures.

    22. Re:1 trillion ips by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      don't know about yours. My VGA adapter (why didn't the PS2 have one of these?) is plugged in to the B input on my Sony G400 - great image quality but it lacks the 16:9, 28" impact of the more subtly detailed images coming from the PS2 plugged into my TV. DC is a great console, it's also a DEAD console with NO new development coming. PS2, on the other hand, is middle aged at worst and likely to have it's best games to come - just look at the strides developers managed over the life of the PSX, with PS2's radical architecture and new-found network play I'm looking to some great stuff over the next year or two.

      GT Concept is a generation ahead of Le Mans, however great a game (and it's one of the best drivers EVER) that is.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    23. Re:1 trillion ips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'jaggies' isn't 'shimmering' though. Jaggies is a term for the square 'bumps' you see on non-aliased lines.

      I have seen a texture-shifting problem, particularly in Summoner, but it doesn't seem to be a fault of the PS2... some games are fine.
      It's also a problem that I've seen on every nVidia card I've ever owned.

  3. Stock by 56 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if I should buy some rambus stock, it's at like 7 now.

    1. Re:Stock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      No, buy some VA Linux stock instead. It's at a buck.


      I bought 100,000 shares a couple months ago. It works better than toilet paper!

    2. Re:Stock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
  4. Rambus rides again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot sinks ever lower into muck and mediocrity. Linux is suck

  5. Wait A Second.. by Pave+Low · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Isn't Rambus supposed to be evil with all their patent business?

    So will the principled slashdotters put their money with their mouths are and not buy a PS3?

    Just curious.

    --
    SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
    1. Re:Wait A Second.. by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So will the principled slashdotters put their money with their mouths are and not buy a PS3?

      Or a PS2, as there's been Rambus tech in there from day 1.

    2. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Isn't Rambus supposed to be evil with all their patent business?

      let me translate:

      Isn't the official slashdot position to dislike Rambus? They have intelectual property, and try to make money from it...we hate that right?

    3. Re:Wait A Second.. by jayhawk88 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Rambus patent bitching is soooo 2001. All the cool Slashdotters are now bitching about In Soviet Russia jokes.

    4. Re:Wait A Second.. by Kintanon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sony is my Dark Master. I bow to the whim of Sony. Rambus is good. You will use Rambus or you will be destroyed! Sony has spoken.

      Kintanon

      --
      Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
    5. Re:Wait A Second.. by NitsujTPU · · Score: 1

      ...or an XBox from ThinkGeek.com?

    6. Re:Wait A Second.. by dissonant7 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, that's why I have an Xbox. (-;

    7. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Soviet Russia, "In Soviet Russia" jokes bitch about cool Slashdotters.

    8. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In soviet russia playstation plays you.

    9. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 2

      "So will the principled slashdotters put their money with their mouths are and not buy a PS3?"

      That's not the righit way to approach it.

      a.) Sony bears the brunt of the 'boycott'. They've already paid for the Rambus chips. They're not going to suddenly reengineer their hardware, so at best the results would happen 3-7 years later when it comes to making a new console.

      b.) Would you be willing to blow up your own house to thwart a burgalar? Consider this: The economy is bad. All it takes is for a little bad news and money starts moving around to various markets. If Sony's not aware of the boycott, then it's the game market you're hurting. Game companies will scale back and work on more 'tried and true' game play. (read: Quake, Street Fighter, and Kart wannabes)

      I don't like Sony or Rambus, but a boycott aimed at Rambus through Sony would do more harm than good.

    10. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 2

      "Sony is my Dark Master. I bow to the whim of Sony."

      Are you hinting at the second coming of Enos?

      ENOS LIVES!

    11. Re:Wait A Second.. by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, Informative
      If you read the article, this issue is brought up (last three paragraphs):
      With product sales and licensing fees in jeopardy, Rambus launched into its second life, as a litigant. Starting in 2000, the company began to seek patent royalties and pursue lawsuits against Micron, Infineon and other memory companies. The company said that patents it filed in 1990 entitled it to royalty payments on all of the SDRAM and DDR DRAM ever sold.

      Potentially, the lawsuits could have entitled the company to billions in royalties. Infineon and others, however, alleged that Rambus committed fraud in securing those patents and, so far, the memory companies have won in court.

      Since then, the company has tried to position itself as the kindler, gentler Rambus, with executives stating that the company will work more on chip connections and spend less time in court.

      So it looks like that they have realised that litigation was not getting them anywhere and decided to go back to their core business.
      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    12. Re:Wait A Second.. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Why stop there? Sony is evil what with their association with the RIAA and MPAA, and their tendency to license the shit out of technology which isn't all that impressive to begin with. They licensed Betamax into the ground some time ago (I'm sure most of us can remember that) and would have massacred minidisc the same way except that they're an industry ubergiant. Then memory stick came next - Now here sony is, they have a proprietary encrypted memory card solution and when the PS2 comes around, do they use it for the memory card? No, they come up with a different but basically equivalent proprietary encrypted memory card solution.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:Wait A Second.. by Merrydigital · · Score: 1

      It's starting to look like Rambus wasn't the scum that its big customers tried to portray, after all. Infineon, et al, and the best lawyers its big bucks can buy, tried to make it seem like Rambus was cheating them, when in fact they'd been shown Rambus' tech under NDA before Rambus was ever in JEDEC. ... and then the chip cos. just happen to use it. Looking more and more like the big companies use little companies IP and then hedge their bets in the courts. Rambus didn't cheat. It got out-lawyered. There was a great story on it in the Merc (http:www.sjmercury.com) and in the Chron (www.sfchronicle.com)

    14. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dont forget the notorious N64 with its 8(expandable) megs of rambus ram.

    15. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So is there a magical place where the jokes bitch about Soviet Russian Slashdotters? :)

    16. Re:Wait A Second.. by bongoras · · Score: 1

      so you are telling me that if I don't buy a PS3, the entire world economy will come crashing down in flames? That's soooooo cool! I was gonna pre-order one now for only $1995, now NO WAY, I'm boycotting Sony for the simple pleasure of single-handedly destroying the economy of the entire planet.

      evil laughter...

    17. Re:Wait A Second.. by C0LDFusion · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you, but I prefer having backwards compatability with the PSX over having the ability to use the memory stick. (Long live CompactFlash!)

      --
      Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
    18. Re:Wait A Second.. by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful
      There's no reason they couldn't have included both PSX/One memory slots and one memory stick slot. It would have made more sense, especially since the device has i.Link and USB, Sony probably could have sold a $30+ software package to allow transferring data between sony digital cameras and DV camcorders, and memory stick, as well as TV display of images on memory stick and so on, or playing MP3 or ATRAC from memory stick. You could probably get $50 from people who were going to do ALL of those things.

      Instead, the USB is used only for the force feedback wheel, keyboard, mouse, and maybe ethernet IIRC? The 1394 is even worse, it's used only for the little-used networking function in the PS2 (At least GT3:A-Spec uses it.) Sony missed the boat entirely. Obviously microsoft gets it, XP Media Center edition don't ya know. The next xbox will be running that, I'm sure, at least it will multiboot to it if nothing else. Why doesn't Sony get it?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    19. Re:Wait A Second.. by grammar+fascist · · Score: 1

      In SOVIET RUSSIA, Soviet Russia jokes about YOU!

      Or: In SOVIET RUSSIA, Soviet Russia jokes bitch about YOU!

      /me ducks

      --
      I got my Linux laptop at System76.
    20. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sony is a mediocre company that sells on the basis of reputation alone. Today, they excel in far fewer fields than markets where they are considered "the cheap alternative."

      good Sony stuff: computer displays, high-end optical disc equipment/media, TVs made for the Japanese market, lightweight laptops, marketing

      poor: TVs made for other markets, low-end optical disc equipment/media, magnetic tape equipment/media, home theater components (receivers, etc.), speakers/headphones, desktop computers, car stereos, cordless phones, ergonomic design (remote controls....ha!)

      fair: inexpensive radios, wireless phones (as sonyericsson), digital video/photography, writeable optical equipment/media, most other things that sony does that people haven't heard of (which is why you've never heard of them there)

    21. Re:Wait A Second.. by Sentry21 · · Score: 2

      I'm reminded of something Chrichton says in an episode of Farscape (1x22, 'Family Ties'):

      Rygel, doing the right thing starts at the beginning of the day, not after you've been caught.

      Rambus may be nice now, and may be playing fair now, but only because they can't get anywhere being jerks. That doesn't mean Rambus is no longer evil with their patent BS, it means they're no longer successful with their evil. If given the opportunity, they would go back in a second, I'm certain of it.

      --Dan

    22. Re:Wait A Second.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Sony are evil all by themselves, but that's never stopped anyone on slashdot, due to the "oooh, shiny!" factor.

    23. Re:Wait A Second.. by Kintanon · · Score: 2

      I think they make great MiniDisc players. Their video game stuff is fantastic. They are a HUGE company to the point where it's almost half a dozen smaller companies that happen to use the same name. So they are better at some things than others, who cares? They make a lot of GOOD stuff. If they made clothes I'd wear them. If they made food I'd eat it. If they rented apartments I'd live in one. I am Sony's corporate slave!!

      Kintanon

      --
      Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
    24. Re:Wait A Second.. by lungs5i9 · · Score: 1

      I sleep with my PS2 every night. I have actually been plotting to form a secret cult of sony, which they have been instructing me to create for them through the strange frequenceys projected into my cornia whenever I play vice city on my rear projection TV. Didn't you ever wonder why all game instruction booklettes not only advise, but threaten almost against playing any console on a rear projection TV? Playstation is my crack, and the good folks at Sony are my crack dealers.

  6. Maybe Dr. Evil Took Over Sony by syntap · · Score: 5, Funny

    "This new game console will do one million cagillion ... billion calculations per second!"

    1. Re:Maybe Dr. Evil Took Over Sony by Zeebs · · Score: 5, Funny

      Will it cost... ONE MILLION DOLLARS?

      --

      Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
    2. Re:Maybe Dr. Evil Took Over Sony by brightertimes · · Score: 1

      Maybe we should all that power for the neo xbox project ;)

  7. Rambus by CaseyB · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously Sony was sold on the technology after seeing how much benefit intel got from it.

    1. Re:Rambus by ShawnDoc · · Score: 2
      What nailed Intel/Rambus was the cost associated with it. The performance gain didn't match the premium price Intel/Rambus demanded. So in response people ended up buying older Intel technology or if they needed the speed and performance they bought AMD.

      Here's hoping Sony was able to liscense the technology for cheap. If not, they're going to be stuck when it comes down to a price war between Nintendo and Microsoft when the next generation gaming machines come out.

    2. Re:Rambus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF are you talking about. PS2 Uses Rambus. Nothing new there.

    3. Re:Rambus by SoVeryWrong · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not so sure price will be all that different. Nintendo has been using RAMBUS technology on their consoles for a while (way before Intel adopted it).

    4. Re:Rambus by TheTomcat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it makes sense to use a "proprietary" technology like RAMBUS for consoles..

      The main drawback to RAMBUS on a PC architecture, IMHO, is the tight grip on manufacturing, and the possible inability to get parts at a reasonable cost (not that it was really reasonable in the first place).

      When's the last time you upgraded the RAM in your console?

      S

    5. Re:Rambus by windmite · · Score: 1

      Probably around 1998-99 When I upgraded my Nintendo 64 from 4 to 8 whopping MB :P

    6. Re:Rambus by batkiwi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The last time I upgraded my RAM for a console is when Turok2 came out for the N64, and I bought the 4mb ram upgrade kit, which, if I'm not mistaken (and I very well may be), was rambus ram.

    7. Re:Rambus by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 2, Interesting

      which, if I'm not mistaken (and I very well may be), was rambus ram.

      You are not mistaken. The N64 uses Rambus for both the main system memory and the 4 meg Expansion Pak.

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    8. Re:Rambus by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Informative

      As I understand it, and I am certainly no expert on ram signaling, RDRAM's serial arrangement works well better in consoles because they benefit from the speed increases, without suffering from the main drawback of increased lag times, because most consoles have quite a bit les RAM than a PC. RDRAM signal's each ram unit in sequential order, which sometimes means long lags when retriving data from a ram bank that was just signaled, you have to wait for the signal to reach each of the other banks. However, you benefit from much higher throughput once the correct ram bank is found. This was one reason why the much larger sized AV files performed so much better on early P4s with the Rambus chipsets. Consoles with their much smaller ram requirements have much shorter lag times than a PC with a Gig of ram, and benefit quite a bit from the higher throughput. The dual banks of ram were one method to reduce the lag, since it allows two signals to proceed at the same time reducing the maximum number of cycles before data can be transmitted.
      Of course my knoledge of these subjects is strictly from an hobbist point of view, any engineers or others with more knowledge are free to in form me of any errors.

      --
      Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
    9. Re:Rambus by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      That is correct, it's all RDRAM. While the latency and narrow (serial) interface between system and memory cause performance problems for PCs (interleaved DDR SDRAM turns out to be faster than interleaved RDRAM for obvious reasons which have been rehashed many times) but not for consoles. This is because you have more control over the system since you're designing every piece of it and none of the memory ever has to be physically far away from its controller.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:Rambus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      but what about from a dwarsf point of view? Little taller, that's about it, true. An elsf point of view? they're definitely taller than hobbist.

      or maybe an enst point of view.. they're *really* tall!

    11. Re:Rambus by silvaran · · Score: 2

      I think it makes sense to use a "proprietary" technology like RAMBUS for consoles..

      The problem with that is licensing and intellectual property. Currently, the PS/2 uses various proprietary systems (such as the boot loader, the image processor, the I/O -- which is just a compressed Playstation-1). These things are unavailable directly from the PS/2 Linux kit. Instead, the software shipped with the kit includes binary-only code that either disables or hinders the usage of these locked components. It's not necessarily Sony's fault, as some of the technology doesn't belong to Sony and so disclosure is at the whim of the licensee.

    12. Re:Rambus by racerx509 · · Score: 2

      ironically enough, the N64 did. The N64 had upgradeable ram and it was Rambus. It had RAMBUS R-Dram hitting an amazing 500mhz way back in 1996.

      --
      13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
    13. Re:Rambus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      since your post makes no fucking sense, you must be a terrorist transmitting codes in secret through slashdot. STOP THIS MAN!

    14. Re:Rambus by matty619 · · Score: 1

      did you notice any sort of performance gain with the upgrade? Was it worth the cost? -M@

  8. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like Sony's Hype machine has been restarted.

  9. Playstation 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have two indica dominant females vegging under 160 watts of flourescent light. They're about 2 feet tall and have a dozen or so exposed budsites.

    I have a 150 watt HPS and hope to yield an oz or two from each plant.

    Should I switch to 12/12 now, or should I top the plants and let them veg for another couple weeks first?

    1. Re:Playstation 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      send your sweet sweet bud straight to me! I smoked DURP!

      DUHGUHURUHPRHURPHRUPH!

    2. Re:Playstation 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i say that you veg the plants a little while longer until they look like bushes, then bloom(don't forget to make clones before you bloom so you can have the perpetual harvest

  10. A beowulf cluster of 40 ps3s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And I will have an "earth simulator" in my own home.

  11. But... by wiggys · · Score: 1

    ...are the games any good?

    --

    Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

  12. Spare Us! by ziggles · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Am I the only one that remembers the non-stop ridiculous hype the Playstation 2 had for about two years until it was released? Then when it was finally released, it was extremely disappointing? How about we just skip the hype and wait for it to be more than a list of specs?

    1. Re:Spare Us! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Playstation 2 is not "extremely disappointing". It is a bloody fine gameconsole, with excellent games.

      It may not live up to its pre-launch hype, but that's a hardly a reason to discard it as crap.

    2. Re:Spare Us! by ziggles · · Score: 1

      Who's discarding it as crap? I never said anything of the sort.

    3. Re:Spare Us! by ziggles · · Score: 1

      Moderation Totals: Flamebait=1, Total=1 Guess I am the only one that remembers. sigh

    4. Re:Spare Us! by Dan+Ost · · Score: 1

      Extremely disappointing?

      The PS2 has been out for years and I continue to
      be impressed by it. Its specs might not look as
      impressive as the Xbox, but it is plenty powerful
      for the excellent games that continue to be
      developed for it.

      I'm looking forward to the PS3, but I don't see
      the need for it. Th PS2 is plenty powerful for me.

      --

      *sigh* back to work...
  13. yeah okay... by doofusclam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... so cue the comments about how great a Beo-bloody-wulf cluster this would make and how it'll be able to solve world peace despite the fact this is a carefully orchestrated scare tactic to keep ps2 owners from buying XBoxes (sp?)

    Thing is it sounds impressive, but will that still be the case when it ships? If it was available now then of course things would be more interesting.

    And Rambus: maybe this is their real market, PCs are too much of a commodity to employ their expensive memory. The only 'expensive' discrete component in a PC nowadays is Windows, and even that seems on the way out.

    seany

    1. Re:yeah okay... by digerata · · Score: 2
      The only 'expensive' discrete component in a PC nowadays is Windows, and even that seems on the way out.


      Yeah, except for the $400 video card that I sold soul to buy.

      --

      1;
    2. Re:yeah okay... by doofusclam · · Score: 1

      Oh come on. Thats like me saying cars are a commodity and you saying 'no way it cost 500 dollars each for my leet gold wheel trims'

      Look back to when PCs started, EVERYTHING was at a premium. Now Taiwanese companies knock out network and vga cards for less than 10UKP. Okay, they're crap but this is the point - PCs are a commodity and you CAN build a cheap ass PC that wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago. You also have the choice of a 400 dollar graphics card but you don't NEED one.

      Hell, i've built a PC for my younger brothers with a mobo with onboard vga,lan,firewire,usb2 and sound. The motherboard cost me about 40 UKP (60 USD) - if that isn't commodity pricing then what is?

      seany

    3. Re:yeah okay... by mark_space2001 · · Score: 2
      > XBoxes (sp?)

      It's spelled Xboxen.

      Or some shit...

    4. Re:yeah okay... by TheFlamingoKing · · Score: 1

      The only scare tactic needed to prevent my purchase of an XBox is the word Microsoft.

    5. Re:yeah okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's XBoxes. Boxen is not a word despite what the geek community would have you beleive.

    6. Re:yeah okay... by Scrameustache · · Score: 2

      this is a carefully orchestrated scare tactic to keep ps2 owners from buying XBoxes

      No, the huge xbox controller is a scare tactic to keep people with hands from buying the xboxes...

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    7. Re:yeah okay... by MojoMonkey · · Score: 1

      In favor of a PlayStation (n)? Since when did Sony become the underdog company that strives to rid the world of evil? If you truly make purchasing decisions based on the "ethics" of the companies that produce it, then ALL console systems should be off your list.

      --

      ----- "Blame the guy who doesn't speak English." -- Homer J. Simpson
    8. Re:yeah okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "...beleive" Heh, I love it when ass munching Anon Spelling Nazis slip. Believe.

    9. Re:yeah okay... by TheFlamingoKing · · Score: 1
      All console systems are now off my list. Thanks for all your help. If you come across any more "evil" corporations, you should let me know!

      Should I throw away my Intellivision now?

    10. Re:yeah okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's only because the idealistic liberals believe that not buying an excellent console is 'sticking it to the man'.
      This is also a promiment philosophy of Linux hippies, the worst of all socialists, in more ways than one.

  14. Impressive by kpansky · · Score: 1

    The more and more I read about the PS3 the more it sounds like a supercomputer. From an architectural perspective, it seems the PS3 is designed like a small beowulf cluster, or at least with the ability to perform in a similar way. Very impressive specs too.

    I guess the question is: when will Sony have the Linux kit for this bad boy :)

    --

    --Kevin
    1. Re:Impressive by kenthorvath · · Score: 2

      That sounds like an interesting business model. Buy two PS3's for twice the performance! Firewire them together. I'm sure I know some people who would link up 10 or more for those extra 20 points in the benchmarks... Kinda like what Voodoo 2 SLI did.

  15. Maybe this will lead too.. by _14k4 · · Score: 1

    XXX Box? Where you can only play BMXXX.. fiesty competition..

    But in all honesty, if the price of the PS2 stays at 199, this thing (when it comes out in 5 years, after Everquest: the next expansion, Everquest 2, and Everquest for your bathroom) will probably be 400ish. I'll stick with the PS++.

  16. Some Specs by robbyjo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Can be found here.

    --

    --
    Error 500: Internal sig error
    1. Re:Some Specs by timeOday · · Score: 2
      It sounds advanced, so I guess it's still years off?

      I have always been a loyal PC gamer (my last console was an Atari 2600) but now I'm wavering. I look at spending $150 for a decent video card, plus a new mobo, cpu, and ram to make it sing, vs. $200 for an entire X-Box, which might be extra-nice because I don't have a DVD player yet.

      I used to enjoy plowing through thick simulator manuals, but I'm losing my taste for holing up alone in a dimly lit computer room. Plus console games are more suited to split-screen gaming, which is starting to sound good as my son gets old enough to play along with me. I never thought I would cross over to the dark side.

    2. Re:Some Specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dark side? what the fuck are you talking about, dipshit. man, you guys fucking crank me up.

  17. Linux Kit by Znonymous+Coward · · Score: 2

    Anyone know if they are considering a Linux kit fpr PS3?

    --

    Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.

    1. Re:Linux Kit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yes, the PS3 will actually be using Linux as it's ROM loader, so in addition to running games you can start it up in console mode.

  18. next gen consoles by tw1z · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I suppose this is the beginning of all the hype about the next gen consoles as the current gen sales have started to dry up (post x-mas). There are only visible bumps in sales as various online applications and "killer app" titles emerge (vice city, etc etc). The reality is that the next generation platform is going to be much more dependent on networking and in-home broadband capabilities than on highly touted chip stats. At present there are approximately 12 million PS2's in the US market and about 5 million Xboxs. Assuming no overlap (and we know there is some), that 17 million represents approximately 17% of US households having a latest generation console. My theory is this number is strictly capped by the broadband capabilities of homes. If the telco's/cableco's/wirelessco's don't get the ball rolling all the chip stats on earth aren't going to bust this market open. Even more interestingly, we once again find ourselves in a position where the latest technology innovations are going to be hindered by the binge/purge internet infrastructure roll-out of the late nineties...

    1. Re:next gen consoles by Andrewkov · · Score: 1

      Yeah, post x-mas.. I just got my PS2 for xmas (yeah, I have a great wife!). Anyway, surfing just behind the technology wave is and always has been much cheaper. I'll be getting the most out of my PS2 and my aging PC before rushing out to buy the latest and greatest tech. Anyway, you're right, it is amazing how comon these consoles have become, almost everyone I know has one, but networking them isn't quite main stream yet.

    2. Re:next gen consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last time I took a math class 17% of 230 million was 39,100,000.

    3. Re:next gen consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At present there are approximately 12 million PS2's in the US market and about 5 million Xboxs. Assuming no overlap (and we know there is some), that 17 million represents approximately 17% of US households having a latest generation console.

      You forgot GameCube, you insensitive clod!

    4. Re:next gen consoles by owenb · · Score: 1

      Last time I looked, there weren't 230 million households in the US. The parent's estimate was pretty accurate.

  19. More... by larry2k · · Score: 0

    More of this on here and here and here

    --

    The package said "Windows XP or better. Pentium Class Processor or better"... So I got a Mac with OS X

  20. More Like Mini-Me took over Sony by TheNecromancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think it's more likely that Mini-Me took over Sony, as the PS3 will be a smaller, "toiter" version of the PS2.

    "Anyone for a shmoke and a pancake?"

    --
    Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
    1. Re:More Like Mini-Me took over Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go for the bong and blintz.

  21. Re:Impressive - But so did the ps2 by Timmmm · · Score: 1

    When they announced the ps2 specs, they looked impressive... Look at it now.

  22. Patents and stuff by floppy+ears · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With product sales and licensing fees in jeopardy, Rambus launched into its second life, as a litigant. Starting in 2000, the company began to seek patent royalties and pursue lawsuits against Micron, Infineon and other memory companies. The company said that patents it filed in 1990 entitled it to royalty payments on all of the SDRAM and DDR DRAM ever sold.

    Lovely. Let's all go out and throw support to this wonderful company!

    Seriously, though, I'm in the market for a new computer right now. I'm looking for a high end machine, but I refuse to buy one with RDRAM. It's just too expensive and not effective enough. Thankfully, you can now buy high-end DDR based Pentiums at Dell.

    Rambus sucks.

    --

    "If I could live to be several hundred
    I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
    1. Re:Patents and stuff by Roofus · · Score: 1

      Do you own a PS2 by any chance?

    2. Re:Patents and stuff by cheezedawg · · Score: 2

      It's just too expensive and not effective enough.

      RAMBUS has always and still does offer the best performance combined with a P4. And although this is largely irrelevant now, the price difference has almost disappeared (RAM prices between PC3500 DDR ram and 1066 Mhz RDRAM are within $5, and boards with the Intel i850 chipset are usually about $20-25 more than boards with an 845 series chipset).

      Doesnt make a difference now since I think Intel is dropping RDRAM support.

      --
      "The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush
    3. Re:Patents and stuff by floppy+ears · · Score: 1

      No. I bought a Dreamcast when they started selling for $50. I have to admit that I'll probably buy a PS2 when it's going for $100.

      --

      "If I could live to be several hundred
      I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
    4. Re:Patents and stuff by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      If you want high-end, what the hell are you doing buying a dell? With the possible exception of cases (I have yet to see a really good third party server case, to date they are all either stupid-ugly or underdesigned) you're better off buying every single component yourself from an e-tailer for a variety of reasons including selection, price, and the fact that when you've put it together you know just how everything is set up.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Patents and stuff by floppy+ears · · Score: 1

      I thought about that, and still may do so. I also might buy a Talon from Falcon Northwest.

      But you know what, these days you can get a Dell with pretty good components, and it ends up being a lot cheaper. Plus, I'm not good at building stuff.

      --

      "If I could live to be several hundred
      I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
    6. Re:Patents and stuff by captaincucumber · · Score: 1
      I agree. Dell offers some really great deals, but overall you're better putting together a computer yourself, here's my reasoning:
      • Dell is only marginally cheaper than buying equivalent components and putting it together yourself, sometimes not cheaper at all
      • The "advantages" of going with a Dell are really just smoke and mirrors. Tech support is a joke if you know anything about computers - I think the small print even says that they only have to support your computer in it's original state - i.e. the first thing they tell you to do when you call is pretty much "insert your system restore CD and reboot the computer." The reason I bought a Dell - to have a tested, well working machine - turned out to be crap, the sound card it came with was a POS and so was the video card
      • Dell skimps to save money in places that you won't realize. This includes using a power supply that is the abosolute minimum to run your system, cheap video and sound as mentioned before, and a few other things you'll discover later.
      • Proprietary. Don't know if this is still the case, but my Dell came with a proprietary connection between the motherboard and the case. Meaning that I can't put a new motherboard in the case now that my Dell needs upgrading. I understand that new Dells include a proprietary connection between the power supply and the motherboard.
      Dell is tempting, the deals they have are pretty impressive, but overall I think you're better off putting a computer together yourself and learning a few things along the way. I recommend NewEgg as a good place to look for components. TigerDirect and buy.com also have some good deals. If you do buy a dell, be sure to check out DealCatcher.com, a lot of times they list discounts and coupons for Dell that you would never find on your own.
    7. Re:Patents and stuff by drinkypoo · · Score: 2
      The good news is, PCs are only getting easier to design and assemble. It's really not 'building' any more because:

      1. Most things can only plug in in one place, or can be plugged in anywhere they will fit. Even memory can often be installed in any slot you feel like with no ugly termination required, unless you got suckered into RDRAM.
      2. Most connectors can only be plugged in the right way. It's rare to see a motherboard of any quality that doesn't have keyed connectors.
      3. Generally speaking you can just buy good things and have a certain expectation they'll work. If you buy crap you might spend some time RMAing before you can put your system together.

      You would be far better off in the long run with a talon than a dell, but I maintain that anyone with two neurons to rub together can build a PC. You could actually do it JUST by following the manuals. The best advice I can give you is to get a good case and power supply. The case (obviously) holds everything, it's your foundation. If it's sloppy then your motherboard will be in an odd position, none of your cards will fit in the system cleanly, it's a mess. If your power supply is wonky, NOTHING will work. Eliminating the case and power supply as sources of problems will save you a world of trouble.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Patents and stuff by bernardos70 · · Score: 1

      AFAIK Intel is not dropping support for RDRAM. On their latest roadmaps, RDRAM is still in there into 2004. This was a couple months ago and took most people by surprise since everyone thought Intel was done with RDRAM.

    9. Re:Patents and stuff by Shads · · Score: 1

      AMD System:
      Motherboard - ASUS A7V8X 108.98
      Ram - 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CORSAIR DDR cL2 171.00
      Ram - 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CORSAIR DDR cL2 171.00
      Processor - AMD ATHLON XP 2700/333 320.88
      Hard Disk 1 - EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE 320.99
      Hard Disk 2 - EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE 320.99
      Video Card - ATI Radeon 9700 PRO 128MB 8X 287.00
      Sound Card - Creative Audigy2 Platinum 137.85
      CD-RW - Lite On 52x24x52x CD-RW 63.00
      DVD-R - Lite On 16x DVD, 48x CD-ROM 36.85
      Ethernet - 3Com 3C905C-TX 27.00
      Speakers - Creative Inspire 6.1 6600 113.00
      Floppy - Teac 1.44 Floppy Drive 12.00
      Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Optical KB/M 82.00
      Case - Lian-Li PC-60 USB Alum Case 120.00
      Power Supply - Antec TRUE550 Power Supply 105.95
      Monitor - Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u 890.99
      ----
      Grand total: $3289.48

      Intel System:
      Motherboard - ASUS P4G8X DELUXE 259.00
      Ram - 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CORSAIR DDR cL2 171.00
      Ram - 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CORSAIR DDR cL2 171.00
      Processor - Intel Pentium 4 HyperThread 3.06GHz 706.00
      Hard Disk 1 - EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE 320.99
      Hard Disk 2 - EIDE 200.0GB 7200 RPM 8MB CACHE 320.99
      Video Card - ATI Radeon 9700 PRO 128MB 8X 287.00
      Sound Card - Creative Audigy2 Platinum 137.85
      CD-RW - Lite On 52x24x52x CD-RW 63.00
      DVD-R - Lite On 16x DVD, 48x CD-ROM 36.85
      Ethernet - 3Com 3C905C-TX 27.00
      Speakers - Creative Inspire 6.1 6600 113.00
      Floppy - Teac 1.44 Floppy Drive 12.00
      Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Optical KB/M 82.00
      Case - Lian-Li PC-60 USB Alum Case 120.00
      Power Supply - Antec TRUE550 Power Supply 105.95
      Monitor - Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u 890.99
      ----
      Grand total: $3824.62

      I scribbled up both of these systems for a friend who wanted to look at the equiv intel and amd systems... top of the line style single processor.

      The price on both of these systems have dropped between 250-500$ since I wrote these up... a 'equiv' dell system (removing all the tech support options and software options possible) runs about 4200$ (Just built an intel 3.06 ht on the site, gig of ram, single 200g hd, etc-- as close as I could get to the intel system above). That's not a very close comparison (Minimum of 650$ difference in price from above systems.) Not to mention the quality of the components is MUCH higher in the above systems (Oh and the price of shipping each component above is included in the price-- even the massive 21" fs monitor.)

      --
      Shadus
    10. Re:Patents and stuff by dpoulson · · Score: 1

      I tend to find that if you buy a branded computer (dell, compaq(HP), Fujitsu, etc) they have very little in the way of upgrade path. Their idea of upgrading is to buy the next model up!

      --
      http://www.22balmoralroad.net/ http://www.tinynetworks.co.uk/
  23. Rambus? by TheReckoning · · Score: 1

    Wasn't RDRAM villified on PCs for gaming because the serial nature of the bus made for high latency? Once the transfer got started, it was really fast, but the time between RAM request and data available was much longer than even SDRAM.

    Tom's hardware blasted it at first, then turned around and said it was really keen. I think AnandTech did too.

    IIRC, RDRAM was good for servers and other systems that don't need low latency.

    So why use it on a gaming system?

    1. Re:Rambus? by dreamchaser · · Score: 5, Informative

      You've got it backwards actually. Servers tend to have lots of random access, so they need low latency. Modern games tend to stream a lot of data, so bandwidth becomes more important. There is a reason why the P4/RDRAM combo excelled at Quake 3 Arena; oodles of bandwidth.

      Streaming applications: bandwidth is the most important
      Apps with lots of random memory access: latency is far more important.

    2. Re:Rambus? by homer_ca · · Score: 1

      Also don't forget that rambus uses a narrower bus; 16 bits vs. 64 or 128 bits for SDRAM. On a small board like a game console it's a big advantage to save all those circuit traces.

    3. Re:Rambus? by UncleFluffy · · Score: 2

      Wasn't RDRAM villified on PCs for gaming because the serial nature of the bus made for high latency?

      The first generation of RAMBUS had abysmal latency and was next-to-useless for graphics hardware. After being traumatised by trying to get a circa-1995 RAMBUS-based graphics design working I've not looked at it since for graphics apps, but from what I hear from other people in the field the latency has improved a lot since the early devices.

      --

      What would Lemmy do?

  24. Re:overkill? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 1

    TV sets are limited to 640x480 and 24 fps

    Uh, I don't know what kind of TV you have, but analog TV has always run at 60fps interlaced for NTSC and 50fps for PAL.

  25. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what about the steady increase of HDTVs that are showing up on the market?? we are then talking about 1080x768 (ish) and at 60fps... still nothing radical in today's CPU and graphics power, but would you be suprised to see a VGA port on the back of the box??

  26. Silly asses by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe if they chose a tile based graphics architecture, they wouldn't need to buy ludicriously expensive 100 gb/s RAM.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:Silly asses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, insightful. Maybe if they used a cold fusion power supply, you wouldn't have to plug it in. Maybe if they compressed all their games by 99% they could fit them on CDs. Maybe if you clap your hands Tinkerbell will come back to life.

    2. Re:Silly asses by UncleFluffy · · Score: 2

      Maybe if they chose a tile based graphics architecture, they wouldn't need to buy ludicriously expensive 100 gb/s RAM

      Tile based architectures just move the problems to a different part of the system and make them a lot harder to control. Geometry data takes bandwidth to transfer as well, you know.

      --

      What would Lemmy do?

  27. To paraphrase Sony ads.. by grub · · Score: 1


    "What about XBox?!"

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  28. 1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Ferrule · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    (-1 Stupid)

    You need that kind of power to drive a TV????

    This is a bit ridiculous, no a lot ridiculous..

    I suppose one day there will be a console which can actually run HDTV, but then will the average joe with the NTSC TV buy it?

    1. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by wiggys · · Score: 1
      You seem to be confusing calculations per second with fill-rate.

      To render Toy Story 2 at 24fps to DVD-quality TV took thousands of computer hours.

      In fact, there's no reason why a trillion trillion operations per second couldn't be put to good use eve if the output resolution was only 640*480.

      --

      Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

    2. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your trolling needs practice. this one was boring.

    3. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Informative

      >> I suppose one day there will be a console which can actually run HDTV

      Yes, and that console will be called XBox or GameCube. Both support HDTV 720p and 1080i. Rogue Leader, IIRC, was the first game to be wholly rendered in HDTV resolution, but it of course plays just fine on my ancient TV.

      NTSC TV, btw is a pseudo-512x384 resolution - analog, dont ya know. A hi-res image actually looks better than a resolution matching image because it constantly rescans and kind of achieves a 'built-in' antialiasing effect.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    4. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by flymolo · · Score: 1

      >> I suppose one day there will be a console which can actually run HDTV
      PS2 linux supports this which means PS2 can also theoretically do if if any titles choose to. The hardware doesn't prohibit HDTV, but it doesn't make it particularly easy. In linux there is no auto-detect for HDTV/NTSC/VGA, but the boot loader CD does it somehow.

      --
      "Sometimes it's hard to tell the dancer from the dance." --Corwin Of Amber in CoC
    5. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by martyn+s · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gamecube does NOT support 720p or 1080i. It supports 480p, which takes no more processing power than 480i since 480i is really rendered in 480p with half the pixels being thrown out.

      Xbox, in theory, supports 720p and 1080i, but most games don't support it. Unless it's rendering simple geometry, 720p and certainly 1080i is just way beyond what the Xbox can handle.

    6. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. While people are still using crappy PAL/NTSC TVs, it'll continue to look pants.

      Comparing the PC / PS2 versions of GTA3 makes me realise why I prefer PC games - nicer screens will always look nicer.

      Ho hum, I guess a few more HP's under the bonet can't hurt things in the big console markets.

    7. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Mantrid · · Score: 2

      Tekken 4 did support one of the HD modes (480p?, sorry can't remember)- wasn't wide screen but it still cleans up the image nicely. Many games seem to do anamorphic or letterbox widescreen, too bad I haven't seen one that was anamorphic AND HD yet, as stretching out the game really pixelates it.

      PS2 can do a lot of interesting things (Like software DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1), if only it had a bit more RAM to throw around!!

    8. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. I did some checking, seems you're right, and they were lyin^H^H 'misquoted' about Rogue Leader being 1080i, and is indeed 480p.

      I never doubted the original claim because it's not a particularly polygon intensive game.

      720p DVD playback can be enabled, IIRC, in the xbox dashboard at least.

      Anyhow, it's all HDTV anyways. I'm usually too busy playing the games to count pixels, myself.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    9. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For the record, more and more new PS2 games are supporting 720p. Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4, and SOCOM, just to name a few.

    10. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Glonk · · Score: 2

      Yes, and that console will be called XBox or GameCube. Both support HDTV 720p and 1080i. Rogue Leader, IIRC, was the first game to be wholly rendered in HDTV resolution, but it of course plays just fine on my ancient TV.

      I think you're a bit confused.

      Out of the Xbox, Gamecube, and PlayStation 2, the only console that can support in-game 720p and 1080i is the Xbox. They all can support it theoretically with the component cable connections, and they all can support 480p just fine, but neither the Gamecube nor the PlayStation 2 have enough framebuffer memory to run at anything higher than 480p. It's actually impossible.

      The Xbox can run at 720p and 1080i, but because very few people have TVs to run at the resolution and the performance hit it takes, very very few games use it. The only games I know of that use 720p are Tony Hawk 4 and NBA 2K3. Dragon's Lair 3D is the only game to use 1080i.

      Zero games on the PS2 or Gamecube will ever use 720p or 1080i.

      Rogue Leader runs in 480p. Which is an HDTV resolution to some, since it's progressive scan, but most people consider 720p and 1080i to be HDTV and 480p to just be "digital TV" rather than high definition.

    11. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by martyn+s · · Score: 1

      Hey, if you're enjoying it, that's great, I enjoy it too. But I'm a graphics whore, so I'm not too busy to count pixels.

      It's not all HDTV. 480p and 1080i or 720p is a world of difference.

      And the Xbox definitely does not support 720p DVD playback since there is no such thing as a 720p DVD. You might mean 480p, but the answer is still no: the Xbox cannot play DVDs in 480p, even though there's no technical reason why it shouldn't be able to.

      720p is really the ideal resolution for videogames, as opposed to 1080i. The reason is that while 720p and 1080i are similar in quality, 1080i requires that approximately twice as many pixels be actually rendered only to be thrown out. See, the Xbox can't selectively render pixels, so it has to render an entire frame just to make one field (interlaced frame). Interlacing, while nice for video, is incredibly wasteful for videogames.

    12. Re:1 Trillion calcs/sec for 640x480 by Babbster · · Score: 2
      Xbox, in theory, supports 720p and 1080i, but most games don't support it. Unless it's rendering simple geometry, 720p and certainly 1080i is just way beyond what the Xbox can handle.

      It's not "way beyond" what the Xbox can handle. Two examples off-hand: Dragon's Lair 3D supports 1080i and Tony Hawk 4 supports 720p. You're welcome to argue that the games are just "simple geometry" but then again virtually all games are just geometry. Having picked up Tony Hawk 4 a couple weeks ago I can say that it is by no means "simple" with its huge areas and very nicely rendered graphics - while it isn't cinema quality it looks very good.

      While it's unlikely that we'll be seeing something looking like Unreal Tournament 2003 (PC) rendered in 720p or 1080i in the current console generation (Unreal Championship looks good but it's not UT2003 with maxed out graphics options at 1600x1200), it's absolutely certain that we'll see something like it (and many others) in the next. The tech is there and it's only getting better.

      To put the final nail in this particular coffin, there's really little reaosn all Xbox games couldn't be in 720p mode. While not all would have the full 1280x720 resolution, not all high-def televisions can display that full resolution anyway. With 1080i, even the broadcast HD signals aren't going out at the full 1920x1080 (interlaced) that is possible and virtually none of the "affordable" HD televisions can display that resolution anyway. It's pretty trivial to render a game at, say, 1024x768 (well within the capabilities of the Xbox) and then output it as a 720p signal, which I would imagine is what the games marked as 720p are doing, and you still get a huge quality bump compared to rendering internally at 640x480 and outputting NTSC or even 480p.

  29. Re:overkill? by Syncdata · · Score: 2

    There's just no market for a more powerful system. Game companies are going to stick to the current consoles rather than investing in new platforms whose advantages won't even be noticed. In fifteen years, we'll all still be playing our PlayStation 2 systems.
    And who needs a 2400 Baud Modem? After all, text files transfer fast enough as it is? All that bandwidth is going to go to waste.

    --
    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  30. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you mean 30fps, or 60fields/sec

  31. What I want to know is... by zipwow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it have enough processing power to crack the XBox key? :P

    -Zipwow

    --
    I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
    1. Re:What I want to know is... by cmburns69 · · Score: 1

      More importantly, will it have enough power to crack the XBox2 key? (probably something like 65536 bits)

      A Starcraft RPG? Only at

      --
      Online Starcraft RPG? At
      Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
  32. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe they'll take advantage of the increased resolution of wide screen, high-definition TVs. By the time the system is released there will be a lot more of those TVs around than there are now.

  33. Re:overkill? by cmburns69 · · Score: 1

    The current systems don't do as well on HDTV sets as they do on normal TVs. Another failing of the current systems is that they only have enough power to render full details of some games, when in single player mode. Bring in another camera or 2 and the detail drops.

    There is still a market for more powerful game machines, and the developers always will find a use for eye-candy.

    Starcraft RPG? only at

    --
    Online Starcraft RPG? At
    Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
  34. Re:overkill? by Nevermore-Spoon · · Score: 2

    Don't you think that it will actually be optimized for HDTV? Come on think a little (yawn) Xbox already has an HDTV version, got to play it at a friends house an a 64 inch plasma...my 27" conventional Tv just makes me wanna cry

    --
    I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
  35. Won't be seeing it for a while. . . by stevarooski · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its great that these rumors of the PS3 are leaking out to get people excited, but we certainly won't be seeing the unit for a good while yet.

    Console development is damn expensive (and getting worse each time around), and there is a *lot* of life left in the PS2. Hell, they're still selling PSOnes at a good clip!

    I would expect Sony to milk the PS2 for all its worth before updating the hardware (and forcing updates from those developing for it, always a hassle). The only thing that would make them move more quickly is to one-up an opponent. And even then, they may wait; its the games that make money, and there are some pretty damn good games for the PS2.

    --

    - - - - - - - -
    Don't worry, being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep in a giant blender.
    1. Re:Won't be seeing it for a while. . . by Kintanon · · Score: 2

      Personally I would expect the PS3 in 2006, maybe 2005 if Microsoft release their nextgen Xbox sooner than expected. The PS2 hasn't really hit its stride yet with development and the full potential of the system has only been realized on a small handful of games. I think we'll be seeing some spectacular titles comeing out on the PS2 towards the end of 2003 and all of 2004.

      Kintanon

      --
      Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
    2. Re:Won't be seeing it for a while. . . by Killer_Rabbit · · Score: 1

      Sony has said that the PS3 will be complete in 2005. So, we probably won't see the PS3 although 2006, which gives the PS3 three more year, or about 6 (7?) year total lifespan for the PS2, which is about right for a console lifespan.

      Keep in mind that the PS3 will be backwards compatible with all previous generations of the Playstation so those game libraries will not be lost. Also, they really don't want MS to beat them to punch with the Y Box or whatever they are planning to release as the follow up to the X Box.

    3. Re:Won't be seeing it for a while. . . by drinkypoo · · Score: 2
      Don't be a party pooper. This is insightful? Of course we won't be seeing it for a good while yet. That is for the reason you describe - the amount of life left in the PS2 - but it's obvious we won't be seeing it for a while because they are still choosing technologies. Presumably someone at rambus was willing to give sony some kind of deal to announce that they were using RDRAM, they need to revise their image rapidly in order to stay afloat, and that image has to include some long-running contracts for which they are the only supplier.

      After all, RDRAM in PCs is really not gaining any momentum. Interleaved DDR SDRAM beats RDRAM in price, complexity (thus annoyance factor), and performance.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. Re:overkill? by ShawnDoc · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Ever hear of HDTV? By the time the PS3 hits the street HDTV should have a major foothold in the market. I'm sure Microsoft and Nintendo's next gen systems will support the higher resolutions offered by HDTV, and Sony better too.

    In addition, all this power isn't used just for resolution. The power will be used to render more polygons, process more complex AI, and shift around bigger and more detailed textures.

    I won't be happy until GTA is rendered on the fly with graphics on par with the Final Fantasy movie!

  37. I wish my PS2 had more HP --- re: overkill? by hakalugi · · Score: 1
    the "1 trillion" operations doesn't mean more resolution or color depth- just better modeling, shading, mists/clouds.

    remember, the more triangles/polygons, the more realistic round/curved shapes can appear (ie: faces).

    but forgetting 640 x 480- what about progressive scan and HD resolutions?

    and as a matter of fact, my PS2 does bog down below 24 fps in tight battles scenes of Socom Online- a few too many M60/M63 users and a Grenade or 2 in the same area produce slight-but noticable frame drooop.

    i'll take the more HP (as long as it'll play PS2 games, too!) any time!!

    --
    If she floats, she's a witch.
  38. Re:overkill? by Bonker · · Score: 2

    The power of the PS3 if properly used won't go to making a more impressive FPS count, or even the more important polygon per second count. What it will do is enable game developers to use movie-quality CGI rendering techniques (or very nearly) in real time.

    If used properly, and I'm not saying that it will be, then we could have games in which realistic-looking people (or very nearly) were the main characters *and* could be controled by the player rather than moving through pre-determined, pre-filmed action sequences rendered in compressed video.

    With the kind of hardware Sony is putting into the PS3, it puts the burden on software developers to make games than can use it to acheive levels of realism indistinquishable from a hollywood movie or a TV sitcom.

    Wether or not anyone will do that remains to be seen. The fact that people will gladly pay sony for this piece of hardware despite being one of the pillars of the **AA's is almost a given.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
  39. What I care about by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While having super fast graphics/processors/etc is a very good thing (after all, it has to last at least 5 years before the PS4 comes out ;) ), here's my own wish list for the PS3:

    1. Backwards compatible with the PSOne and PS2. Plenty of great games for those systems still out there, and I still like to play them.

    2. Hard drive. This will be needed for the online games (which I don't care about) and add-ons (which I do). While there are games like RPG Maker 2 coming out which use the memory card, I'm more interested in seeing a PC like mod-community surround the PS3 - something we don't have now.

    That, and I just don't like memory cards. I must have 20 PSOne memory cards (and most of those backed up to the PC through some third party units). I'd like to be able to swap save games with my friends just by connecting to them online.

    3. Built in Ethernet/Modem: I'm assuming that come 2005 we'll still mostly be connecting via 56K modems in some areas, so let's assume that's going to be the case. I don't need a "$10 a month for a central line" - I don't play online that often, and I'd rather just have a few good friends who aren't assholes connect to my PS3 over the 'Net to play.

    4. With the Ethernet/Modem, I want a CDDB system for my CD's to store them on the HDD.

    5. And, of course, I want a Linux disk to be orderable with the system - just for those of us who like to tinker.

    1. Re:What I care about by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      Backwards compatible with the PSOne and PS2. Plenty of great games for those systems still out there, and I still like to play them.

      Yeah, but have you seen PS1 games on a PS2 console? The graphics difference is almost as bad as that between the original Colecovision and the VGA version of Cmdr Keen.

      My sister-in-law got a PS2 for Christmas. Her PS1 games spent a whopping total of 60 seconds in the console before being ripped out and replaced with Tekken 4.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    2. Re:What I care about by Stephen+Williams · · Score: 1

      My sister-in-law got a PS2 for Christmas. Her PS1 games spent a whopping total of 60 seconds in the console before being ripped out and replaced with Tekken 4.

      My friend got a PS2 for Christmas, and the only game she's played on it so far is Final Fantasy VIII, a PSone game. She didn't own a PSone, and is very glad to have access to the PSone back catalogue as well as the brand spanking new PS2 games.

      -Stephen

    3. Re:What I care about by cybrthng · · Score: 2

      Just buy an XBox. Problems solved :)

    4. Re:What I care about by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 2

      Are you talking about graphics difference as far as:

      PS2 > PSOne(on PS2)

      Or:

      PSOne(on PSOne) > PSOne(on PS2)

      If you talking about the former - I agree, there is a graphics difference - but for some of my favorite games (Final Fantasy VII, Lunar, etc), I don't give a crap.

      If you're talking the latter, then I haven't seen that myself.

      But graphics aren't always the deal. Look at the original Final Fantasy VI (III US), Super Mario Brothers, or the original Pac-Man. Simple graphics (sprite based, granted), but still great. Or Panzer Dragoon Saga - by todays standards, awful graphics (even the movie sequences look dated), but still a great game.

    5. Re:What I care about by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      Oh, I'm not down-playing the ability to play older games at all. All this does is increase the value of the PS2 console. Its just that the technology available when the PS1 games were made makes them look rather pathetic.

      Then again, why would developers write for graphics that were better than what the console would handle? This blocks and upgrade path to newer games (that is, people wouldn't be forced to buy the newer, better games) if they'd even PLAY on the console to begin with.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    6. Re:What I care about by hawkbug · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I agree - I mainly use my ps2 for ps2 games. However, every now and then I like to break out crash team racing since I haven't seen a game that's equally as fun come out for the ps2 yet. It has the mario cart feel, but for the ps1 console. It's a fun, non-violent game for kids. Also, I like to play Tekken 3 still - in my opinion, it had GREAT graphics and game play for the hardware it ran on. Yes, Tekken 4 may look better, but for some reason, I still think the game play on Tekken 3 is better. So, my point is, if the PS3 isn't backwards compatible, all the way to the ps1, it will lose major points in my book.

    7. Re:What I care about by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 1

      Not at all. Some PS1 games still shine on a PS2, and I would dare say that the best reason to own a PS2, and probably a PS3 will be for the massive collection of PS1 games out there.

      Do some games on the PS1 look horribly out-dated? Yes. No doubt. I can say the same thing about PS2 games of today. Even Vice City isn't all that great looking. The polygons are simply, the textures lack any detail. The people have static facial expressions, and the lighting effects are laughable. That doesn't mean Vice City sucks, it just means we've all be exposed to more advanced things.

      I for one wish there would be more 2D games released, most of those could be done for the PS1, and probably should be.

      Just because newer, more advanced gaming technology evolves does not automatically mean older technology becomes worthless.

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    8. Re:What I care about by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      I don't know if PS2 games will play on the PSOne.

      I was referring to PSOne games on the PS2.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    9. Re:What I care about by ThrasherTT · · Score: 2

      I was quite pleased with the backward compatibility. I can play Castlevania:Symphony of the Night without having to keep my PSOne hooked up on the main TV, which means the kids (very young kids) can have the PSOne to do whatever they please with!

      --

      All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
    10. Re:What I care about by JordoCrouse · · Score: 1

      Just buy an XBox. Problems solved :)

      Yeah, and when I get tired of playing Halo, I could play... uh... umm... well... more Halo!

      --
      Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
    11. Re:What I care about by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 3, Interesting

      1. Backwards compatible with the PSOne and PS2.

      Your wish has already been confirmed, though I can't provide links at the moment, do a google search. You'll find them.

      2. Hard drive.

      There are two sides to that coin, and the side in favor of the hard-drive has more disadvantages than the side that says it's just an expensive waste. I would PREFER a larger standard memory card than a hard drive. 64 meg or 128 meg. That would all but eliminate the need for dozens of memory cards or even the limitations on what you could store on even one that was dedicated to just a few games. As for swapping saves with a friend, it's actually EASIER with a memory card. Just take your card to a friend's house, copy. Bam. I have a PS2. I have many, many games. My PS2's 8 meg card is about half full, and I get to take it with me when I go to a friend's house which has been useful. My Xbox's hard-drive on the other hand is about fucking useless. Yes, it'll save my game on MY Xbox, but it doesn't do me any good when I go anywhere else.

      A hard drive is a good thing. Big-Fat Memory cards are better. There is really no argument here.

      3. Built in Ethernet/Modem

      Oh yes, in an ideal world every machine would come with all the upgrades. It's anybody's guess what Sony will do when the issue of money comes into play. I guess on this one we'll just have to see.

      4. With the Ethernet/Modem, I want a CDDB system for my CD's to store them on the HDD.

      There's no reason why they couldn't do that right now using 64 or 128 meg memory cards (or larger), but a hard drive IS better suited for this task. Still, given that online capabilities are only going to become more common in consoles, there isn't any reason why CDDB support couldn't make it into even the current PS2s, and definately the PS3. Sony's feelings on the whole issue will be the major stumbling block.

      5. And, of course, I want a Linux disk to be orderable with the system - just for those of us who like to tinker.

      You already know about the Linux kit for the PS2, why would you think it wouldn't come along at least at some point on the PS3? I personally don't see Sony considering it a major issue, but I don't think you'll have to worry. Even if Sony doesn't do it, some crafty geeks probably will.

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    12. Re:What I care about by Xerithane · · Score: 2

      PSOne(on PSOne) > PSOne(on PS2)

      The best example of this, and I'm not sure why it happens, is Driver 2. I haven't seen a game that has more problems with it. They must do some strange things with the graphcis for PSX that just don't translate over to PS2. Walls disappear, things are overly pixelated in some places, and a lot of stuff along those lines.

      However, most games render fine. I think it's how close they adhere to the PSX specs instead of hacking for additional features/speed.

      --
      Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
    13. Re:What I care about by Niten · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to add full-screen anti-aliasing to that wish list... =)

    14. Re:What I care about by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 2

      I don't mean to sound like a fanboy - I really don't. I have an Xbox, and technically, it's all good.

      But it's the games for me. I like RPG's - and other than Morrowind (which I play on my PC), and Fable (when it comes out), I don't see anything else I really want. I'm not into sports games at all, and most FPS on the consoles don't hook as well as the PC/Mac based ones do.

      My Xbox list:

      Halo
      Fatal Frame (Xbox version)
      Silent Hill 2 (Xbox version)
      Splinter Cell

      Probably some others (I might buy Mechassault, but I'd rather have Steel Battalion ;) ), but that's about it.

      My PS2 and Gamecube list is much greater - again, nothing about the technology, just about the games (Monkey Ball 2, Resident Evil Zero, Xenosaga, Star Ocean III, Suikoden III, etc) that I enjoy.

      I do see your point - some of my items are in the Xbox now. I think they're good things - some things I'd like the PS3 to have. And there are things I'd like the Xbox to have (CDDB for the ripped files, USB/Firewire connections so I can plug in a keyboard/mouse, etc).

      No system is perfect, so I like to see things better for them all. But for me - I just like the games.

      My rule:

      Xbox has the best looking games.
      PS2 has the most games.
      Gamecube has the best games.

      Just my $0.02.

    15. Re:What I care about by MisterFancypants · · Score: 2
      A hard drive is a good thing. Big-Fat Memory cards are better. There is really no argument here.

      There is, in fact, an argument here, unless the Big-Fat memory cards you're talking about are measured in the gigabyte range. The XBOX hard drive is used for a lot more than just simple save games (eg. storing mp3s, not to mention coming in to play as a third-level cache for game data, etc).

    16. Re:What I care about by hikousen · · Score: 1

      1. Backwards compatible with the PSOne and PS2. Plenty of great games for those systems still out there, and I still like to play them.

      2. Hard drive. This will be needed for the online games (which I don't care about) and add-ons (which I do). While there are games like RPG Maker 2 coming out which use the memory card, I'm more interested in seeing a PC like mod-community surround the PS3 - something we don't have now.

      That, and I just don't like memory cards. I must have 20 PSOne memory cards (and most of those backed up to the PC through some third party units). I'd like to be able to swap save games with my friends just by connecting to them online.

      3. Built in Ethernet/Modem: I'm assuming that come 2005 we'll still mostly be connecting via 56K modems in some areas, so let's assume that's going to be the case. I don't need a "$10 a month for a central line" - I don't play online that often, and I'd rather just have a few good friends who aren't assholes connect to my PS3 over the 'Net to play.

      4. With the Ethernet/Modem, I want a CDDB system for my CD's to store them on the HDD.

      5. And, of course, I want a Linux disk to be orderable with the system - just for those of us who like to tinker.


      In other words, a PC.

      --
      LadyStar - Your Magical and Mysterious Adventure Awaits
    17. Re:What I care about by silvaran · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but have you seen PS1 games on a PS2 console?

      I can sympathize with you there. I don't know about other PS2 regions, but the North American PS2 only includes two options:

      1) Texture smoothing (which is somewhat negligible on 16-bit textures)

      2) Fast CD-ROM (20x instead of 2x).

      The reason why the PS2 is backwards compatible with the PS1 is because the I/O system on the PS2 is virtually a PS1-on-a-chip (or several chips). This system is what is used when you play PS1 games. I could see a good deal of benefit had they increased the clock speed on that chip, but then you have to weigh cost/advantage (and some games likely bet themselves on a fixed clock speed and aren't made forward-compatible with these kinds of changes).

      Plus, if old PS1 games look so great on the PS2, what's the incentive to buy more PS2 games? ;)

    18. Re:What I care about by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 1

      Those are benefits of a hard drive, not winning arguments as to why the system should have (or more importantly, rely upon) one.

      Storing MP3s is a niche thing, I have an XBox and I don't even use that feature. I've tried it, but it's really not worth it. Even if more games supported it, I'm not sure I would use it.

      A third-level cache for game data promotes some really sloppy game design and just begs game designers to store more shit on my drive than I care to have there in the first place. I'd rather see game designers work on tigheter, more efficient code and smaller less bloated save-data, than give them a huge space and just taunt them to fill it.

      I'm not saying the hard drive isn't useful, but it's hardly a requirement and I would hate to see memory cards forfeited in favor of hard drives. The funny thing about hard drives in consoles is that the people who want them most are the ones who play the least games.

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    19. Re:What I care about by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 2

      "I'm more interested in seeing a PC like mod-community surround the PS3 - something we don't have now."
      We had it, sort of.
      Anybody remember GTA: London 1969?
      IIRC rockstar(Producers of GTA) took off the shelf GTA editors that people hacked together from reverse engineering gta, Rethemed everything, And released a 'patch' disk that had replacement maps/sounds/weapons/cars/etc.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    20. Re:What I care about by Glonk · · Score: 2

      My PS2's 8 meg card is about half full, and I get to take it with me when I go to a friend's house which has been useful. My Xbox's hard-drive on the other hand is about fucking useless. Yes, it'll save my game on MY Xbox, but it doesn't do me any good when I go anywhere else.
      Has it occured to you that both are nice?

      On my Xbox I save games to the harddrive (I also use it for ripping my music to so I don't need to listen to the crap soundtracks that come with Tony Hawk 4, etc and for downloading extra levels via the built in ethernet port too...) and when I want to bring games to my friends house, I save it to the MEMORY CARD.

      Nobody is advocating not using memory cards at all in favor of a harddrive. A harddrive is WAY better than a memory card for storage most of the time. It can hold MUCH more data, it can be used as a level cache, it can be used to hold custom music/movies (upcoming consoles will likely have VCR-like capabilities if you'd like), etc. A memory card, in comparison, is slow and expensive and doesn't hold much data.

      That's why it's great to have both.

      Honestly, why do you think there's *TWO* ports on the back of each Xbox controller? The top one is for the voice communicator, the bottom one is for a memory card.

      If you want to bring a game to a friends house, SAVE TO THE MEMORY CARD. :) Simple...

    21. Re:What I care about by Guppy06 · · Score: 2

      "1. Backwards compatible with the PSOne and PS2."

      And God damn it, I want PSX backwards compatability to be what it could have been!

      I was sorely disappointed with the performance of PSX games on the PS2. I've seen Bleem. I know what new hardware can do with PSX software. But Sony knew that their publishers would be edgy about $20 PSX games looking as good as the $50 PS2 games (at least if the coders are lazy).

      I got the PS2 for Final Fantasy X (and only Final Fantas X). After I realized that I no longer liked the Final Fantasy series (strayed too far from their roots), I then had a system for which I no longer had any games to justify its purchase (yes, there are good PS2 games out there, but IMO none are good enough to go out and spend money on the hardware for). So I sold it and haven't looked back.

      I could have kept it. It still played my PSX games. But there was no noticable positive difference between playing the game on my PS2 and my old PSX. If anything, they looked worse (graphical glitches and all). I could have waited until the Linux kit came out and hope I could run a Linux-based PSX emulator, but that would have meant spending even more money on the system. And besides, I already have a PC.

      If PSX games still look the same on the PS3, I'm just not going to buy the damned thing on principle (good games or no).

    22. Re:What I care about by forgotmypassword · · Score: 1

      By default you have to turn on the texture smoothing and cd speedup. They are less compatible - for example certain games stream music or movies off the disc just as fast as they are read and faster disc speeds will fudge this up.

      The one (big) thing that bleem does do that the PS2 doesn't is increasing the resolution for polygonal games. Of course this causes many more incompatibilities and that is why bleem must be custom programed for individual games and the PS2 enhancement works more in general.

      The texture smoothing works wonders for games that dither colors like FF9 and Vagrant Story. But as for your assertion that these games would compete with their PS2 counterparts, I can only hope that you are sleep deprived.

    23. Re:What I care about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's also the very real point that the PS1 games don't look as bad on an actual PSX/PSOne as they do on a PS2.

      Something about how the 'compatibility' is implemented, I suppose, but many PS1 games look a LOT shittier on a PS2, and it's not via comparison with newer games either. I've compared Soul Blade and Tony Hawk 1 side by side on both systems, and the PS1 doesn't make the games look so hideous.

    24. Re:What I care about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry. It'll be at LEAST an hour before you get sick of the wonder that is Halo.

      And by the time you've finished it, there might even be an Xbox exclusive title worth having.

    25. Re:What I care about by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      Except that, with Final Fantasy VIII and neither of those two options selected, I still got graphical glitches. Some battles with screwy colors, some with no textures, and one or two points in the game had invisible text in the text boxes. I've seen PC-based emulators with fewer problems.

    26. Re:What I care about by Sentry21 · · Score: 2

      My Xbox's hard-drive on the other hand is about fucking useless. Yes, it'll save my game on MY Xbox, but it doesn't do me any good when I go anywhere else.

      So go buy an XBox memory card (yes, they do exist) and copy your saves onto them before you go. Simple, no? Hard drives are better for a lot of reasons - more space, permanance, ease of use, etc - and memory cards are good for a lot of reasons - portability, redundancy, etc. - but having a hard drive does not preclude supporting memory cards, it just means that you don't need to have them all the time.

      One of the things that really boosted XBox sales this Christmas is that all you need is in one box - the system, the RCA cables, a controller, two games, and you're off to the races. No DVD remote, but that's entirely optional. No second controller, but kids can take turns. With the PS2 however, there were no games included and you had to buy a memory card very soon, yet you paid the same price. Not good. We sold more XBoxen this Christmas than PS2s by twofold at least. Personally, I rang up about three or PS2s and about ten to twelve XBoxes just in December. A lot of this was new tech or games, but a lot of parents were iffy, and discovered that they could pay $300 + $30-70 + $35 + tax, or $300 + tax. The choice is pretty easy when they're all the same to you.

      --Dan

      --Dan

  40. Re:overkill? by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    60 fields per second, not frames.

    It's equivalent to 30 frames per second, which is close enough to the parent poster's 24fps to not bitch about. Fucktard.

  41. Re:overkill? by Alpha_Nerd · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If we are only limited by resolution, then why doesn't halo look photo-realistic, but TV does??

    Resolution doesn't mean much, I can put CS in 1600x1200 and it won't look as nice as Doom 3 in 1024x768 =/

  42. In other news.... by me0wner · · Score: 2, Funny

    Microsoft announced the up and coming YBOX. Based on the intel platform, and manufactured by Dell, it will perform 2 trillion calculations per second, and will be marketed by Steve.....Dude..yer gettin a dell.

    1. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      are you by chance 17? or from canada?

  43. No thanks! by MImeKillEr · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll just wait until the PlayStation 9 comes out.

    --
    Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    1. Re:No thanks! by TheGreatGraySkwid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Huh. And I thought I was cautious waiting for my Playstation 5. Damn you, Ghost of Christmas Future!

      --
      The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
    2. Re:No thanks! by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      Exactly. He taunts you with the PS5. Once you finally obtain it, he'll show you the PS9 just to start the process all over again.

      He's an evil bugger, ain't he? :)

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    3. Re:No thanks! by Aardvark99 · · Score: 1

      Oh Yeah? Will it play Playstation 8 games?

    4. Re:No thanks! by jenssoderberg · · Score: 1

      Somewhat offtopic but.. As a citisen of the united states of europa (it's coming, like it or not!) I couldn't care less about USA and it's "Bill of rights" Yes it's all about culture, but i'm not part of that culure so i don't care! But.. ..before i get to drunk.. ..well, yes! i really like your sig! Thats fucking rebelius! (sounds like latin? Or atleast a name of a roman conqerour) yes your sig i like, alot!

      --
      /. AC "Concrete lifejackets could get certified under ISO2002"
  44. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually 29.97 fps (assuming NTSC - you might be referring to PAL). Video games still have a long way to go - look at an actual NFL game and the newest football video game on a console. The games have come a LONG way, but they're still no match for live TV. Plus, some Xbox games have HD content, I assume at 480p (no idea if PS2 supports HD). Games at 720p are probably around the corner.

    Resolution/framerate is just part of the "game experience" (albiet, a major part). AI could always use a boost too...

  45. But by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  46. Re:overkill? by Malc · · Score: 2

    You're from N. America aren't you? I remember visiting the UK 3 or 4 years ago and seeing the plethora of wide screen TVs available. I'm sure more than half of the TVs sold there today are letterbox shaped, which is of course higher resolution. PAL is higher resolution than NTSC anyway, by about 100 lines. Europe is very Playstation friendly.

    On top of that, this is aimed at several years from now and suspect it is expected to have a probable lifetime of at least 5 years. By then HDTV might be more commonplace. My XBox is HD capable, although I don't think any games are currently doing more than 480p, although they could go for 1080i.

  47. Re:overkill? by Daytona955i · · Score: 1

    This is for the ammount of information passed around from Chip to Chip and from Chip to Ram according to the post. This is not necessarily resolution. It means you can get more polygons and a more life-like image as well as more things on the screen acting independently.

    3d was a great thing because it allowed us to move in another axis. However with the increase of information, you suffered with worse graphics at first (in terms of the detail) Things like this technology will allow Sony to add more complexity and detail to their games. Now all we need is developers to take full advantage of the ps2.
    -Chris

  48. with that much power??? by ianjk · · Score: 1

    Put it in a rack and throw *nix on it and sell it for 10x the price.

  49. Read the article, Sony MIGHT use Rambus tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Getting a license doesn't mean that they will definately use it. For example AMD had a license agreement with Rambus since late 1998.

    Article is also misleading: "Yellowstone can transfer data up to 100 gigabits per second, or three times faster than current high-speed memory". 100 Gigabits is only 12.5 Gigabytes. Geforce FX and Radeon 9700 PRO has much higher memory bandwidth.

  50. PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's? by greymond · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Cell, which is expected to come out in late 2004 or early 2005"..."will have the ability to do north of 1 trillion mathematical calculations per second, roughly 100 times more than a single Pentium 4 chip running at 2.5GHz."

    - First off I don't know if I like the fact that the word "north" was put in there - IMHO I think the wording could have been better.

    Anyway my initial impression was "Cool in 1 -2 years there will be a new PS console as long as it stays backwards compatible like the PS2 I should be alright" but then I started thinking - with the Linux Kit for the PS2 and the ethernet adapter etc... the PS2 is really starting to get close to just becoming another "choice" as far as a pc (personal computer).

    Example: John Doe doesn't own a computer. John Doe buys a PS2 with all the accessories - and can now surf the web, send email, code, run nix apps, and play video games - exactly what the average computer home user does (with the linux exception of course)

    So if the PS3 is really going to be this "crazy fast machine of death to all other consoles" then would it surprise anyone if Sony started it's own line of Computers/Console crossovers? Where do you draw the line on what difines Computer and what defines Console with the wall beginning to crumble?

  51. AT last by oliverthered · · Score: 2


    Someone doing something worthwhile in the multi-processor field.
    Maybe now people will start to write propper multi-threaded apps.

    More seriously, this should be great for AI's, streams of N dimensional data e.g. video
    , synthsised sound and DSP (think reason), etc.....

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    1. Re:AT last by checkyoulater · · Score: 1

      and DSP (think reason)

      What the hell does the PS3 have to do with Snowcrash?

      --
      Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
    2. Re:AT last by ipxodi · · Score: 1

      Perhaps because Sony will make BillG listen to Reason.....

      --
      load "windows7" ,8,1
  52. Re:Some Specs-Yellowstone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  53. moron the ill eagle kingdumb's... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    gartnering of .conponeNTs, while peddling phony stock markup payper hostage ransom liesenses, up & DOWn the pacific crest.

    lookout bullow. run for your options. the smoking gun is poiNTed at..... (there's not enough room here to provide the full list of suspects). you know who you/they are?

  54. Will it require a digital TV? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

    The PS3 is slated to come out in a hazy period when everyone in the US is *supposed* to switch to HDTV, but obviously the majority of people aren't going to. If the PS2 is HDTV-only, then that's great in a lot of ways, but it's also going to limit market. Heck, I have a 12 year old TV that suits me just fine, and I still buy new consoles. That same TV has lasted me through the Genesis, PS1 and PS2 (and probably a Game Cube one of these days).

    I could see Sony delaying the PS3 until HDTV has taken over a majority of the market.

    1. Re:Will it require a digital TV? by trcooper · · Score: 2

      I'm sure it will support both component and and composite connections. The XBox currently does this and supports the HDTV resolutions of 1080i and 720p along with SDTV resolution of 480p. There's no reason for them not to support both types of connections, unless they want to be dicks.

      You will however want a HDTV monitor, because most games will be able to output at 1080i or 720p, and the difference is amazing.

  55. Re:overkill? by lukeduff · · Score: 1

    That doesn't make sense if you think about it for a bit.

    You're basically saying anything you've ever seen on television can be modeled in real-time on a PS3 which is definitely not going to be true.

    Imagine you had special glasses that made you view the real world at 640x480 and 30fps. Is the Ps3 overkill for simulating the real world through those glasses? Nope.

  56. The Ps2 all over again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1 - They licensed rambus stuff for the ps2.

    2 - They threw around all kinds of crazy numbers for the ps2 in a marketing bid to get the fanboys excited. Anyone remember 70 million polys/second, or 300 times faster than the Ps1?

  57. Hi! I'm off topic by liquidsin · · Score: 2

    I heard a rumour from a couple folk who seem to think that sometime in February there will be a price drop on the PS2. I can't seem to find any evidence to go along with this, but I've heard it from more than one person, although they didn't point me to any sort of proof. Anybody know if this is true or if I'm being lied to?

    --
    do not read this line twice.
  58. how about by asv108 · · Score: 2

    Some good games? The past 5 games I bought for the Ps2 at $50 a pop, I returned 3 of them because they were very disappointing. Great Hardware and Fantastic graphics are insignificant if the game sucks. Better yet, how about a new game genre?

    1. Re:how about by swisener · · Score: 1

      IMHO, GTA _is_ its own genre.

  59. Re:overkill? by mangu · · Score: 2
    we could have games in which realistic-looking people (or very nearly) were the main characters *and* could be controled by the player rather than moving through pre-determined, pre-filmed action sequences rendered in compressed video.


    Better yet, we could have sufficiently advanced AI that could behave as a person does. A rough estimate of the processing power of a human brain: 100 billion (1e11) neurons, each with 1000 synapses, and capable of firing 100 times/second. That translates to 1e16 flops, or 10000 CPUs at the mentioned trillion flops capacity.

  60. 1 Trillion Mathematical Calculations? by JanusFury · · Score: 2

    Something tells me we're going to have a console that's really good at counting to 1 trillion. They don't exactly say *what* mathematical calculations it's so good at... or if it gets the calculations right. 1 + 1 = -37, anyone?

    --
    using namespace slashdot;
    troll::post();
    1. Re:1 Trillion Mathematical Calculations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, it's probably like doing 16 simultanious 4x4 matrix multiplications.
      (4 multiplys + 3 adds) * 16 cells * 16 matrixes
      something like 1792 flops per clock.

    2. Re:1 Trillion Mathematical Calculations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More likely counting to 1 a trillion times. To get a trillion, you probably need to have some massively parrellel matrix operations.

    3. Re:1 Trillion Mathematical Calculations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One Trillion is the number of yen it will be adding to sony's accounts in sales every second for the first two months it is out. So, in essence, the console will be doing that many calculations..

  61. Re:overkill? by sirket · · Score: 2

    It is not 24 fps. Period. 24 fps is what is used in movie theaters. Analog TV is also not 640x480 resolution. The guy who posted this comment does not have a clue about the specifications of analog TV and so his comment should have been shot down.

    Also, I do not believe "fucktard" is a word you moron.

    -sirket

  62. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Overkill?

    No.

    If you've ever complained at the framerate of a game bogging down, because of too much X on the screen, or ever wished for better AI/Physics/Sound Modeling/Graphics in a 'next gen' game, or been able to tell the differene between a DVD, pre-generated CGI, and in game action, then the system doesn't have enough power. :-) Its no longer so much about how many pixels the system can push. Its about how complex the environments can become, how detailed the graphics can get (how many polys the system can push), how detailed the physics engine can be. When we can play rendered CGI-quality games, then we may just have reached overkill for the next gen. Till then, I say, Bring it on!

  63. What I want to know... (ease of programming) by jvmatthe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is if the PS3 will be easier to program than the PS2? My impression of the PSX history was that it did well because it was the 3dfx of consoles. That is, like Glide on PCs, the PSX development tools made tossing 3D games together fairly easy, relative to the Saturn and possibly even the N64. Naturally, those that wanted to squeeze the very most out of the system found the tricks (by getting "down to the metal", so to speak) that would pull off things that weren't necessarily possible through the standard dev tools. This satisfied a great number of developers, as they could get be as deep or as shallow with the graphics as they wanted.

    Now, the PS2 comes out and everyone talks about how difficult it is to program for. Sure, we may be past that, but some devs definitely gave the impression of being turned off by Sony's new system and thought Sony had done a poor job the second time around in providing good dev tools. Naturally, the ability to get down and dirty with the hardware is still there, but perhaps those that didn't want to get too deep into the programming couldn't toss off games quite as easily as they had with the PSX. (Aside: Less shovelware might be a good thing for a console, come to think of it. But I digress...) I'd be interested to know if people still consider the PS2 to be a difficult system to work with.

    Now, the PS3 is in the works and has this nebulous "cell" technology. If two processors were hard to work with in the PS2 (and Saturn and Jaguar) then how the hell can adding more be better, right? What I'd like to be hearing, if I were a game dev, is not that the system is going to be the most powerful thing to hit the industry but rather that it's powerful and easy to start programming for as soon as the dev kit arrives. If there is a high level system that allows you to just toss jobs as this group of cells and get them to do lots of dirty work for you without a lot of hand-holding, then that might very well be cool. But if every game programmer has to learn to corral a horde or CPUs into doing things in parallel, then it sounds like a losing prospect.

    Ok, that's enough. Just wanted to get that out there. :^) Possibly off-topic, but this is a story about the PS3 tech...

    1. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by entrager · · Score: 5, Informative

      The PS2 still is hard to program for. The difference is that now there are some libraries that can be used to simplify things. In the beginning everyone was forced to do things in pure assembly (OK, ALMOST pure assembly). But now the companies that have been working on PS2 games for years have developed libraries and engines that are already optimized. Haven't you noticed that most games that come out of the same development studio have the same look and feel? Of course each game is a bit more refined, but overall stageringly similar.

      It seems to be a common misconception that the PS2 has multiple CPUs. It doesn't. What it does have is a single CPU that is split up into several independantly operating units. The dual-CPU idea developed from the fact that the Emotion Engine has two vector processing units that operate almost exactly the same. These two units make up the bulk of the mathematical processing in the PS2, and must be coded separately.

      All of the code I've written for them has been in assembly and the process is GRUELING. Each unit actually performs two operations at once, a lower and upper instruction. Since the ultimate goal is optimization you end up writting all your assembly and then rearranging everything so that the combination of upper and lower instructions don't step on top of each other and everything runs without any wasted clock cycles. I have heard of a few tools that have been developed to compile C into optimized VPU code, but I haven't used any and I doubt they work very well. A good camera manipulation program will only take maybe a hundred lines of assembly if it's optimized correctly, but I bet these programs spit out many many more.

      (Wow, I really steered off the original topic didn't I?)

    2. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by jvmatthe · · Score: 2

      Steering of the topic or not, thanks for the reply. I wonder how much the burden of PS2 programming will affect the uptake of the new system when it's launched, regardless of its ease-of-use...

    3. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by briancnorton · · Score: 2

      It is in fact possible to create an abstraction layer that portrays the multi-processor environment monolitically. I assume there would be a way to tinker with it should some developer be so inclined, but I dont see it as a problem. So long as your program is multi-threaded most developers shouldnt have to worry about multi processor spanning techniques.

      --

      People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.

    4. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by Xugumad · · Score: 2

      The good news is, unless Sony are doing something really freaky, it shouldn't matter how many processors they have, above 2.

      The bad news is that game programmers are probably going to have a nightmare of a time getting their head around using more than a single processor, effectively. Game programmers are going to have to figure out which parts of their code can run concurrently, without the gain from splitting the code being higher than the loss through synchronization. The only game I can remember that has ever used multiple processors is Quake 3, and I think that might not just be because multi-processor systems are rare.

      Having said that, I think multi-processor systems will become more common as time goes on, both in the traditional seperate processor way, and in technologies such as the cell processor. This means that programmers are more likely to have dealt with multi-processor systems apart from the PS 3, or skills learn for the PS 3 will be transferrable. I also think that the PS 3's architecture will be easier to learn than that of the PS 2.

    5. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by Xugumad · · Score: 1

      However, multi-threaded programming in most low-ish level programming languages (C/C++ downwards, pretty much) is still non-trivial (assuming using shared memory for IPC - if using some form of messaging for IPC, it can become a lot simpler, but also a lot slower). Doing it in assembly, which is quite likely to be relevant, is certainly likely to leave people with headaches!

    6. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by richattri · · Score: 1

      You nailed it. The PS2 was an initial nightmare -- until you got those internal libraries built, everything was hand assembly (and, to make matters worse, almost all the documentation was in Japanese). Then, add the fact that the initial round of development tools themselves, especially debuggers, were woefully inadequate. I'd guess the typical company would have to invest a small team for about a solid year to get core libraries build to begin assembling PS2 games of any quality. This is where I believe Xbox has had some muscle, because the typical PC developer can literally port to the Xbox in a matter of weeks in many cases.

      I agree with others here that while the PS3 chip specs are looking interesting, past history would tell us that they will most likely be delivered with little to no documentation, tools of fairly shoddy quality, and probably will require assembly-level programming and strong knowledge of multithreading and balancing of parallel processing to get the most out of the hardware. It will probably take another year of investment in core engine and library changes to begin developing a serious PS3 title, which itself will probably need 18-24 months. I'd gladly like to see the PS3 delayed a year and let Sony develop some good documentation and tools before throwing this hardware on the dev community.

    7. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Silly boy, why aren't you using VCL like everyone else?!

    8. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 2

      > A good camera manipulation program will only take maybe a hundred lines of assembly if it's optimized correctly

      "A good camera manipulation program" would exist almost entirely on the EE side, which has always a perfectly good compiler.

      The VUs, which until recently didn't have a compiler, are almost entirely used for vertex transformation, lighting, and clipping, and can be thought of as uber-vertex-shaders, for the more PC minded. We also use them for particle systems, physics, and as general purpose vector math units.

      That said, they're still not much fun, and no, the compilers, and preprocessors do not produce code as good as can be hand rolled.

      They're not going to go away either. If anything it looks like there's going to be more of them, at a higher clock speed, with more memory.

    9. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by AltaMannen · · Score: 1

      A good game camera is more likely a few thousand lines of C code than a few hundred lines of assembly code. If you mean setting up a camera matrix with field of view, position, up/forward directions, etc. then that is more reasonable but that isn't really any camera logic, is it?

    10. Re:What I want to know... (ease of programming) by InferiorFloater · · Score: 1

      Amen. The only reason, as far as I can guess, that the ps2 has such a monstrous lead on xbox and gamecube was the lead-time it had to market. Everyone I know prefers developing for gamecube and xbox, but no publishers are interested in those platforms.

      Moreover, it just seems like Sony is making a bigass mistake all over again. Anyone remember the problems they had getting their last really complex chip design to fab? And the system shortages that resulted?

      --

      ---------
      Get back to me when my brain starts working.
  64. No PS9?! by Drunken_Jackass · · Score: 1

    That's all fine and good - but i was promised the PS9 right after the PS2 came out!

    Where the hell is my PS9, with neural integration?!

    --
    There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
    1. Re:No PS9?! by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, we've got at least 73 years to wait for the PS9.

      By then, I'll be 103. Maybe by then they'll have figured out a way to extend our lives while keeping our faculties.

      And maybe by then, I'll be able to afford a nice 1000HP V16 Cadillac.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
  65. please do not advertise PS3 by 2ms · · Score: 1

    Any chance Slashdot could be the ONE PLACE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD where I might be safe from PS3 advertising?

    Besides, weren't we burned bad enough with PS2? Sony's spec claims have always been 100% meaningness -- they obviously just throw outrageous BS out there when someone else has the more advanced system so people who buy for advanced will not see differences between sony and more advanced (in present case xbox and previously dreamcast) as nearly as significant when they think sony's next will be 100000^100000x better.

    1. Re:please do not advertise PS3 by greymond · · Score: 2

      I own both the Dreamcast and Playstation 2, and in all honesty the Playstation 2 is a lot more advanced (at least as far as what was written for it)

      Ever since I had the Dreamcast the games were slightly better than those of my old PS1 with occassional voice over "blurbs" (like in Skies of Arcadia) - Now take a PS2 game like FFX (whether you like it or not) the graphics are amazing and the entire game is voiced over for ALL the dialogue and the "makeout" seen looks really well done IMHO :)

      Granted the Xbox is more advanced than the PS2 but it also came out 2 to 3 years AFTER the PS2 so I should hope it would be.

    2. Re:please do not advertise PS3 by duren686 · · Score: 2

      Take a look at Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast. Now take a look at Tekken Tag Tournament. The difference? TTT has duller colours. Both were first-gen games, and Soul Calibur remains, to this day, one of the best-looking fighters on any system, ever.

      Take a look at Metropolis Street Racer, and then at Gran Turismo 3. There is no graphical difference, no matter how much Sony-talk you throw at me.

      Final Fantasy X was, admittedly, very graphics-intensive, but the makeout scene you refer to was a pre-rendered FMV.

      --
      Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
  66. Re:next gen consoles-Distributed Console Computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine 17 Million of those unit's hooked up to broadband. Makes what Gateway's doing look like a pocket calculator.

  67. OT, but... by cmburns69 · · Score: 1

    Human synapses don't do a single mathematical calculation per second. I don't know what the measurement is, but I know that not all brain cells do mathematical based calculations..

    A Starcraft RPG? Only at

    --
    Online Starcraft RPG? At
    Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
    1. Re:OT, but... by mangu · · Score: 2
      But neurons can be simulated by mathematical calculations. The output of a neuron can be simulated by the inner product of two vectors, one composed of synaptic weights and another with the outputs of the neurons connected to those syanpses.


      Another good use for a lot of math power in a game console would be computational fluid dynamics. Imagine a surfing game, for instance. Or a game where one could be caught by a flash flood.

  68. Re:overkill? by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeh, it isn't 640x480. It's less than that, once you take into account overscan and such.. 5** x 3*** or so, I think. His point was valid, and it was clear to people who cared to listen.

    Maybe he deserved to be shot down, but not by an even bigger idiot. As a matter of fact, the reply was so much more extremely stupid, I felt moved to invent a "new word"... fucktard. English is a living language, you cretin, that means that there is no such thing as a non-word, especially when meaning is implied and a context exists that allows other people (stretching the definition I know, including you in "people") to understand that meaning. You sir, are what is meant when people use the word "fucktard". I only wish I could honestly claim I invented that beautiful, lovely word... how else would I tell my friends about quasi-persons like yourself?

  69. Re:overkill? by chavo+valdez · · Score: 1

    There was a time when moron wasn't a word. Long ago the notion of a word didn't exist, but we and our language have evolved. You have been passed on old timer. The evolution of our species continues on around you and you remain oblivious. Do us all a favor and kill yourself before we are forced to do away with you.

  70. Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by Xeger · · Score: 4, Informative

    Few people know it, but the PS2 is only backward-compatible with the PS1 due to a happy accident. As I understand it, the PS2 uses a PS1 CPU for its I/O and sound processing. When you pop a PS1 game into the system, the PS2 BIOS switches control of all the peripherals over to the PS1 CPU and busies itself emulating the PS1 graphics subsystem.

    With the radical changes inherent in a cell design (as nebulously defined as the term is right now), I can't see how they could pull off the same trick twice. In theory, if they managed to do a full software emulation of PS2, they'd get free PS1 support.

    1. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2

      Why not just include a PSOne CPU in the PS3 as well? Heck, slap all three in there or figure out how to do emulation (if possible) within the PS3 proc for both PSOne and PS2.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    2. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by Nynaeve · · Score: 1

      If the PS3 is really as powerful as planned, surely it would be possible to emulate the PS1/PS2 in software?
      There are already projects galore that emulate all kinds of console systems. According to this there are no PS2 emulators yet, but it stands to reason that Sony could create one for the PS3.

    3. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by Hadlock · · Score: 2

      sounds good to me. sony has been selling the PS One at a nifty profit at $100 for over a year now, and probably still make over $20 a pop of pure profit now that they're at $50. i can't imagine getting less than $30 profit on the PS2.... the R&D for the PS1 and 2 is done, so the cost of the chips is more or less materials, a couple of bucks at most. the PS3 is probably going to be the size of the xbox, or larger, and the need for backwards compatibility + the open space in the xbox will probably = these chips included on the motherboard of the PS3. that's my guess, anyways.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    4. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      but the PS2 is only backward-compatible with the PS1 due to a happy accident


      I doubt it was an accident that the PSX graphics processing chip was included in the I/O chip in the PSX2. A software emulation of the PS2 would not get free PSX support because the PSX graphics processing is not available to PSX2 titles.

    5. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by drinkypoo · · Score: 2
      This is so far from an accident it's not even funny. You obviously didn't go to Video Game University, IE, spend your time growing up playing video games. Allow me to assist you.

      This backwards-compatibility through using the previous system's processor as your sound chip is nothing new - Sega did it. There are two main reasons for it. The first and most obvious is backwards compatibility! But the second is that they have already implemented this CPU once, they know how to make it tick, and that's one less chip to learn how to handle. If you change architectures then everyone has to relearn; programmers and EEs alike.

      The Sega Master System has a Z80 in it; The Genesis uses a Z80 as a sound chip and with the appropriate adapter can play SMS games.

      However, this is extremely unlikely in all systems from this point forward, because the CPUs are so complex. Every one of them is overkill for audio processing; it makes far more sense to simply slap a big DSP in there, which is basically what all the sound card manufacturers do now.

      Emulation of a CPU this complex is extremely... complex :) and is probably not worth implementing. People can always buy used systems to play older games.

      The only maker likely to have backwards compatibility in the next generation (to my mind) is Microsoft, because their games are simply x86 directx titles. Some games might not play well without patches, but that's why xbox has a hard drive. Xbox2 will almost certainly function as a PVR (for more money, like xbox 1's DVD function, which I expect to be free in 2 but I could be sadly mistaken) and will have a lot more disk space.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by crashnbur · · Score: 2
      With the radical changes inherent in a cell design (as nebulously defined as the term is right now), I can't see how they could pull off the same trick twice. In theory, if they managed to do a full software emulation of PS2, they'd get free PS1 support.

      I'd say it's unlikely that they'll still be using the PS1 CPU for anything in the PS3, so even if they offer "full" emulation of the PS2, they probably wouldn't be able to do anything with the PS1.

    7. Re:Backward compatability with PS2 is unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      If they offer "full" emulation of a PS2, they can get PS1 emulation "for free".

      The IO processor of a PS2 is a PS1-on-a-chip anyway.

  71. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by deft · · Score: 3, Interesting

    maybe someone can expand on this, but I believe for import and export purposes, the definition of game console and personal computer becomes a financial issue.

    that may play into the decision to market it one way or another.

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
  72. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the UK now its damn near impossible to buy a non-widescreen decent sized TV. I got mine nice and cheap a few years back and wont go back at all! Visiting the US I was shocked to see that there are very few widescreens on sale at all.

    All my PS2 games and many PS1 games support widescreen and it makes a fantastic experience! Playing a driving game, and having a much wider view of the scenery flashing past is something to behold! Same with most other games.

  73. XBOX by muyuubyou · · Score: 2

    I don't agree the PS2 is such a big improvement over the DC in real world applications. You know the real world? programming ease counts there.

    If the PS3 holds true to the hype, we could be bruteforcing XBOX private key using PS3!! Now that's fun :)

  74. Last Time Was... by sdjunky · · Score: 3, Funny

    "When's the last time you upgraded the RAM in your console?"

    Right after Majora's Mask came out and I got the 4 meg memory upgrade for my N64.

    Oh, you meant that to be rhetorical...oops

  75. Playstation 5 Secrets Revealed by LuxuryYacht · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Sony PlayStation 5, a 2,048-bit console featuring a 45-Ghz trinary processor, CineReal graphics booster with 2-gig biotexturing, and an RSP connector for 360-degree online-immersion play. See the specs at Playstation 5

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
  76. Dude... hahaha... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude... Troll Tuesday kicks ass. :)

  77. Extremely disappointing? What world are you on? by Viewsonic · · Score: 2

    They have sold over 20 million PS2's, and it is totally dominating the next-gen console market (For now.). It has the largest sell-through base of any platform for developers.

    1. Re:Extremely disappointing? What world are you on? by ziggles · · Score: 1

      What does sales have to do with the quality of the hardware? The PS2's hardware is nothing compared to what it was hyped up to be.

  78. Look Out by Fembot · · Score: 1

    Well i Sure hope ole' saddam doesnt get his hands on any like he did with the PS2's http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/15584 .html Imagine what he could do with 4000 PS3's all doing a trillion operations per second!!

  79. Perhaps.... by Zapateria · · Score: 0, Troll

    ....they should invest some money in designing a new controller instead. They wont be able to get away with that crappy design with another console.

  80. Idiot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Why would they render at 24 FPS for a DVD ?!!

    You better stop skipping class, you obviously need it.

  81. Comment of a doomed buyer by Martigan80 · · Score: 2

    Well I have always loved the Sony Playstation line since day one. There has always been a sense of dedication and ingenuity about them. The companies that they contract for games, and the games they make themselves. I only buy a few games here and there but they are the games the Sony puts on their Playstation,, like Tekken, Final Fantasy, Grand Tourismo, Mortalcombat 4 and Robotech. Sure some games come out on other platforms and I have played them on others-but it "feels" more or better ( you damn English majors;-P ) to play them on a Playstation. ...now if they would only pay me for this creaking post! ;-) X2

    --
    This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
    1. Re:Comment of a doomed buyer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "There has always been a sense of dedication and ingenuity about them."

      Sony could give a damn about it's consumers. Almost anyone who has delt with Sony Customer Service can attest to that. The PSX was known to crash and burn a scant few years into it's life cycle forcing the purchase of a new unit. The Ps2 suffers from the same poor build quality - I'd like to see some numbers on the amount of defective or broken PS2s compared to other consoles.

      The PS2 is and always has been a graphically subpar system that saved itself with massive advertising and the stupidity of the general public to believe it.

      And the controller sucks. It sucked in 96 and it sucks now.

  82. These will NEVER be publically mod-able. by Viewsonic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft make all their money on software sales. The second people can run UNLICENSED software on the system (Ie. Linux, which in turn can run Linux games, or emulators) will make it so there is little to no need to buy legit software for that console. You may think "Sure, but the percentage of people who will do this is small. So it wont hurt." - WRONG, losing ANY legit game sales hurts the developers. If you look at the XBox with it's mod chips, people can put 200GB drives in their systems, stick a Linux installation on the drive, stuff it with a NES, SNES, Genesis, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, MAME, and god knows what else emulators on it, thats all people NEED for $200 bux! A lot of people are buying the XBox simply for that purpose, which Microsoft (And others) LOSE MONEY ON. You can blame this on bad console design, but Microsoft and Sony CAN NOT offer systems like this as cheap as we are seeing now if you want this. They will have to redo their entire marketing and we would see consoles for nearly $500 just so Sony / etc gets some sort of PROFIT by allowing people to opt out of buying their licensed software (Like the PS2 Dev kit).

    1. Re:These will NEVER be publically mod-able. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and if you think vendor lock-in is a bitch now, just wait until the only way to play ANY game is on your HomeEntertainmentExperience(tm) console.

      Once all the competition is gone (and it ALL comes from the PC now), that'll about wrap it up for the game industry. It'll suck worse than Hollywood.

    2. Re:These will NEVER be publically mod-able. by Carrot007 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sony do let people run linux on pS2 OFFICIALLY you know, you do know that don't you?

      see:
      http://www.ps2linux.com/ (jap)
      or:
      http://playstation2-linux.com/ (us /eur)

      for more info.

      bah some people.

      --
      +----------------- | What is the question!
  83. But the REAL question... Magic Gate? by mekkab · · Score: 1

    Will they license Magic Gate technology for their memory cards??

    I won't be able to sleep at night until that mystery is solved!

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  84. "Cell" processor announced. Developers groan. by Animats · · Score: 2
    For a while, Sony had been telling game developers that, next time, they wouldn't produce such a wierd machine. The PS2 has a MIPS processor, but most of the compute power is in the two vector engines, which are very wierd machines. To get good performance, parts of the game itself (such as the physics engine) need to be implemented for the vector engines.

    This is neither easy nor fun. It's the main reason that PS2 games sucked for the first year.

    The XBox is an Intel PC with a GEForce 3, so everybody knows how to program that. There was concern at Sony that developers might desert the PS2 for the XBox, since they could get product out the door faster that way. In response, Sony had been telling developers that, next time, their machine would be more standard.

    But now that the PS2 is selling well, and developers have learned how to deal with the wierd engine, maybe Sony is more confident in proposing a nonstandard architecture for the next time.

    In this context, "nonstandard architecture" means "doesn't run C". We're back in assembly language again. Probably a wierd assembly language. Post-superscalar assembly languages are painful, because they're used only for stuff you can't say in C. Try writing some MMX code to get a feel for this.

  85. US will try to cancel this project... by leeet · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget that with a few simple hacks, you'll be able to guide nuclear missiles you know...

    --
    -- Leeeter than leet
  86. RAMBUS? by JabXVI · · Score: 1

    With those criminals on board, there might as well be a Grand Theft Semiconductor for the PS3.

  87. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by LoudMusic · · Score: 2

    This has been discussed several times. Sony is huge in home entertainment. They manufacture everything that you can plug into a television AND they make computers. They're big into Linux now that Microsoft has jumped in on their gaming profit shares.

    Panasonic was trying to do cool stuff with Nintendo's GameCube ... but I don't think they got very far.

    I suspect the next generation of all gaming consoles will be more of an all around entertainment box with all the Internet connectivity of a home computer. The only thing missing from the XBox is a keyboard, mouse, and web browser. The only thing missing from the PS2 is ... oh wait, nothing is missing. I'm going to go place my order for PS2 Linux now.

    --
    No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
  88. Re:overkill? by Malc · · Score: 1

    Oh am I jealous of you!

    All the widescreen TVs over here seem to be high definition too. This makes widescreen too expensive. None of the broadcasters use letterbox at all, although a lot of what I watch on BBC Canada and BBC World has black bars at the top and bottom, and presumably cropped sides. I would really like widescreen for DVD's and XBox though.

  89. Funny thought... by DredPirateRoberts · · Score: 1

    Hee hee... The title of this thread gave me the mental picture of a pile of disparate electronic components slowly moving toward each other under their own power and merging to form the Ultimate Gaming Device.

    --
    "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
  90. HAHAHAHA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More fucking bullshit Sony hype for you idiots... And you will believe it, just like you believed the hype for the technically weak PS2.

    1 Trillion... My ass!

  91. Sony owes "N" by Superfarstucker · · Score: 1

    i cant find the /. article (nor did i bother to look) but i remember SONY owing nintendo significant amounts of money for every console sold under the 'playstation' name, and it seemed that sony would be foolish to continue naming them "playstation x"

    1. Re:Sony owes "N" by rherbert · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Sony-owes-Nintendo-10% story was a hoax.

    2. Re:Sony owes "N" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      i remember SONY owing nintendo significant amounts of money for every console sold under the 'playstation' name


      It was a joke.

  92. Sony is just a hype machine... by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anybody who remembers the hype from the PS2's pre-release will remember exactly how much pure FUD they spread. There will no doubt be PS2 defenders who are going to reply to me and defend every claim that Sony has made, but the fact is (and I've seen the real world comparisons) that the PS2 isn't half of what Sony promised. They made outrageous polygon claims and bandwidth promises, all of which were in better than ideal, and horribly unrealistic conditions, and they were assuming you weren't actually doing anything in the first place (rendering single, untextured, unshaded, flat surfaced polygons).

    There will be no doubt the next Playstation will be leaps and bounds beyond the PS2. It will probably be more powerful than either the Gamecube or the XBox combined. That happens. It's Moores Law (which is ending, or so they say).

    But the fact is no matter how good the PS3 will or will not be, Sony is going to feed us as much hype and fud as they can generate until we all have a PS3 sitting in front of us (disappointing us).

    And I'm not just trying to flame Sony, because I like many of the games I have for my PS2, as well as the fact that I can play all of my PS1 games on it. But the truth is, Sony as a gaming company really hasn't got any more of a clue than Microsoft. They only know how to market something, and it doesn't matter what it is. It can be anything from a featureless AM/FM radio the size of a quarter or it can be a really stupid mechanical Dog. If the engineers make it, Sony's marketing division can sell it to you.

    I predict the PS3 will be either black again, or silverish like the Sony Vvega televisions. I predict the controller will change very little (or not at all) though perhaps it will gain a couple of new useful features. Really the PS2 controller has reached a height of evolution that, love or or hate it, is hard to fault (unless it doesn't fit your well in your hands...) It will be a big leap in technology blah blah blah but anymore that isn't mattering the way it used to. I predict that the first year of games will be rushed sequals to PS2 games and shoveled versions of PC games or XBox/Gamecube games that outshined the PS2 versions (this year will be the year the GCN and XBox really show their technical superiority as the developers have come to grips with the systems).

    Most importantly, you can expect television commercials, signs, radio spots, magazine spots (even in no-gaming mag-rags), you can expect web-banners, signs in malls, signs in fast-food-joints, and basically all of the crap we've become used to, only pushed to a level only Sony has the stomach to do.

    Share and enjoy.

    --

    "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

    Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    1. Re:Sony is just a hype machine... by startled · · Score: 2

      I've been wondering for a while if they'd just give up and go the way of Nike.

    2. Re:Sony is just a hype machine... by theLOUDroom · · Score: 2

      Anybody who remembers the hype from the PS2's pre-release will remember exactly how much pure FUD they spread.

      Hmmm...Sony spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about their own, console? Doesn't seems like something I remember them doing.

      --
      Life is too short to proofread.
  93. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by dfj225 · · Score: 1

    Example: John Doe doesn't own a computer. John Doe buys a PS2 with all the accessories - and can now surf the web, send email, code, run nix apps, and play video games - exactly what the average computer home user does (with the linux exception of course)

    Somehow I don't think that "John Doe" will be doing much coding or running nix apps if he already doesn't own a computer. Any person who is that into code or linux would most likely already have a computer at home.

    --
    SIGFAULT
  94. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I do not believe "fucktard" is a word you moron.


    What is it then, a number?

  95. Re:overkill? by 72beetle · · Score: 2

    I felt moved to invent a "new word"... fucktard.

    Don't hurt your shoulder patting yourself on the back for that one, Chauncey - fucktard has been around for at least 25 years - I know, because it was used widely in my youthful vernacular. It's a compound word consisting of "fucking" and "retard".

    -72

    --
    -Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
  96. Backwards compatibility most likely planned.. by digital+photo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hardly an accident I would imagine. Considering that the other game consoles weren't, at the time, marketing backwards compatibility and considering that Sony's money comes not from the consoles, but from game sales. They would have been stupid to not continue to milk their existing base of games and of future games to be made for the PS1 platform.

    The PS1 cpu was also a RISC processor. This makes it an efficient IO controller as well as being a programmable one to boot.

    Hardly an accident. Most likely planned strategy to garner continued income from the current base of software for the PS1.

    As for Cell computing, it is essentially like a PVM or MPI system. Except with the kind of technology they are talking about for interconnects, it would be like comparing a homebuilt Beowulf cluster with 10mpbs connections to one which uses gigabit connections.

    With Cell computing, they are just taking the PS2 scheme of using a PS1 chip as IO to the next level. Only more generalized. With on-chip integration, they would save on circuit board real estate as well as power consumption. The system would also be blazingly fast.

    The only problem with multiple processors on the same chip die is the cost. :|

    But basically, with Cell computing, they would be able to easily emulate the PS2 with special enhancements. Heck, they would be able to emulate mulitple PS2s so multiple people can play on multiple screens, all from the same box.

    From their press releases, you would also be able to link up the various PS3's into one large computing unit.

    That in my mind makes buying the PS3 a very desirable proposition. Owning more than one might actually be rather cool. >:)

  97. Re:overkill? by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 2

    Haha. Then take a look at the last line.. ever hear of sarcasm?

    Thanks though, I needed a fresh example to show people what it meant.

  98. Good they used RamBus by EmagGeek · · Score: 2

    Since you can have a different page open in each bank... should allow for some graphics intensive computation, and good multitasking. The fact that rambus can have different pages open in each back lends well to SMP, too, so maybe they're thinking of using more than one CPU?

    Food for thought..

  99. bleem it to me by Total_CDRW · · Score: 1

    Goodbye Bleem! www.bleem.com - where did it go? killed by the Sony killing machine. Since then, I've never touch PS1 or PS2... Long live MegaMan (on another console).

  100. Re:Impressive - But so did the ps2 by Mantrid · · Score: 2

    Looks fine to me! I've enjoyed many fine games on my PS2. Sure other things have eclipsed it, that is inevitable. But the PS2 does look impressive when compared to the previous PS1.

  101. Re:overkill? by 72beetle · · Score: 2

    Thanks though, I needed a fresh example to show people what it meant.

    Naw, I think you did an excellent job of that with your first post.

    -72

    --
    -Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
  102. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by EvilBudMan · · Score: 1

    One big word.
    Encryption.

  103. PlayStation 3's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of THESE!!!

  104. Playstation will be called Playstation by randomErr · · Score: 2

    There was a hoax that Sony owed money to Nintendo over the name of the Playstation. It turned out to a hoax. Here's the full story:

    Sony, Nintendo Playstation story "a hoax"
    The Inquirer

    Letters Amy beware

    By INQUIRER staff: Thursday 19 December 2002, 13:37

    Subject: Nintendo enjoys a 10 per cent slice of Sony's Playstation profits
    Hi Paul,

    Just read your article titled "Nintendo enjoys a 10 per cent slice of Sony's Playstation profits", and noticed you mention don't remember the original story.

    I remember back in the days of owning my SuperNES, reading of a plan (and seeing some "artists impressions" of what it would look like) to produce a CD drive add on for the system. The SNES console would site on top of the unit, connected by its expansion port. The idea being, I believe, was to upgrade the capabilities of the SNES, and allow larger games to be loaded from CD-ROMS. The article I read at the time specifically mentioned that the CD unit was going to be produced by Sony.

    I don't remember it being called anything along the lines of Playstation, I think it was to be called the SuperCD, similar to the MegaCD add-on for the Sega Megadrive.

    I suspect Nintendo saw the "success" of the Sega MegaCD and canned it accordingly!

    10% of the Playstation profits seems a rather large amount to be paid to Nintendo just off the back of this project alone, however I do recall more recently reading a related article which mentioned that the Playstation evolved out of this project, and in fact every Playstation more or less contained a SNES... This of course may just be something else to toss onto the rumour mill!

    Ben

    Subject: Nintendo enjoys a 10 per cent slice of Sony's Playstation profits

    Hiya,

    Nintendo might well have an interest in the Playstation name. It is indeed true that the original, never to be released, Playstation was a CDROM for the SNES. My memory is rusty over whether it was a genuine joint venture, I seem to remember that Nintendo paid Sony to develop the gizmo (which included an updated graphics chip). Nintendo, for whatever reason, decided they didn't like the project and Sony decided that they did like it. Hence Sony went off and developed a full on Playstation. However, it would not surprise me if Nintendo originally financing/sponsoring the project gave them some right to the name.

    Arron

    Subject: Nintendo enjoys a 10 per cent slice of Sony's Playstation profits

    Hi

    Inquirer often reports rumours, but please, you should do _some_ filtering at least. One source in the whole world for a _MAJOR_ news item (consoletalk). News that, if true, would have to be told to stock owners first (press release etc.) and that would make headlines at CNN. ...slashdot really is no source for news, the "editors" are a joke ;).

    Jussi Lassila

    I think the story that was posted on the Consoletalk site was a hoax. Someone sent the story to me yesterday, but decided not to post it after i didnt find anything backing the story up. News that big would have been reported on the Sony/Nintendo websites, or if there was an announcement, in some Japanese newspapers at least. It seems right before /. posted their news the story has disappeared completely from the Consoletalk site. Who knows...

    Fred

    Subject: Nintendo enjoys a 10 per cent slice of Sony's Playstation profits

    As I recall, Sony and Nintendo were working on advanced CD-ROM attachment for the Super Nintendo (SNES) Entertainment System. The name of this device, if I understand the article correctly, was to be "Playstation". No whether or not Nintendo filed paperwork or somehow trademarked/copyrighted the name, I don't know, but if Sony is agreeing with and conceding to Nintendo, one can only assume that there was indeed a valid interest in that name.

    Here's some interesting URLs on this device with some quotes (forgive any URL wrapping)--

    "At one time, Nintendo had deals going with both Phillips and Sony, to develop a CD-ROM for use with the SNES." - See here.

    "It's true. Years ago, Sony was designing a CD-ROM add-on called PlayStation for Nintendo's SNES. After many delays due to contract disagreements, Nintendo's deals with Philips to also make a CD-ROM system compatible with SNES, and Nintendo's change of heart for the slow-loading CD-ROM format, the original PlayStation project died." - That's here. And here.

    Google also appears to have these pages cached in case any of them should happen to not load, a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=Nintendo+CD+S NES+Playstation" target="_blank">here's the query I used.

    Will

    Subject: the console article thinger

    Hi,

    Just as some extra info, to supplement the article on Nintendo and the Playstation name⦠I remember reading a while back, that the Playstation was born, through Nintendoâ(TM)s ignorance.

    Legend has it (or does it?) that Nintendo originally contracted Sony to design a "CD based console add-on" for the SNES. This, I surmise, was supposed to be the answer to Segaâ(TM)s add-on for the Genesis/Mega-Drive which was labeled the GenesisCD/Mega-CD. Nintendo then refused to have it made, bla bla, something or other â" and Sony ended up designing the console for itself, and the Playstation was born. I donâ(TM)t really know all the interim details (where I inserted bla bla) but I could do some Googling and give you anything I find.

    Cheers

    Christo van Gemert

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  105. The next release IS better though. by digital+photo · · Score: 1

    Sony's Spec claims, like anyone else's spec claims, are just that. Raw Performance specs. How the game designer and game coder makes use of that potential afterwards is the limiting factor, not the machine.

    PS2 didn't burn people who had realistic expectations. They promised a great system and month after month of games lined up and they delivered.

    The dreamcast was slightly more advanced than the PS2. However, what does that matter if the company can't remain stable? In that regards, Sega dropped the ball and Sony delivered by remaining and deciding to support their customers who owned PS1 game titles. Currently, Sega doesn't support DC anymore. Currently, Sony still supports the PS1 with new games and new hardware.

    The Xbox was MS attempting to get into the game market. The box is basically a PC put inside of a large console box. Is it better than the PS2? From a raw performance standpoint, it is. From a game standpoint, it is a good system. But, will they be around in the game market long enough to know whether they will pull a Sega? Or perhaps a MS with constant revisions and upgrades? Who knows. They are the new kid on the block and they have to prove themselves. So far, they are holding their own even though their console sales are suffering.

    The point is, you point out that Sony's specs are BS because consoles put out after it have higher specs. That is flawed logic.

    Sony delivered the system they said they would deliver. Ie, one which was many fold more powerful than their previous Playstation.

    Will Sony's next machine, the PS3, be just as impressive? I certainly hope so. But until it is delivered to the customers, it is a moving target. One which Sony will most likely update with new technology before putting the unit on the production lines.

    Regarding Nintendo, my beef with them is their resistance of letting go the "game cartridge" mindset. Which is unfortunate since the cartridge design doesn't slow down pirating or hacking of their systems in the slightest, but it does increase their overhead and thin out their margins.

    Regarding PS2 and Xbox, I prefer to think of it this way: If you are comparing the graphics quality of a system, The Xbox, released 2-3 years after another system, The PS2, that speaks pretty highly of the power of the hardware of the PS2 and that of the PS2 game designers and coders.

    More reason why in my mind, Sony delivered on the PS2 and will continue to deliver in their future platforms. It is also the reason why I feel secure that my PS1 and PS2 games will still be playable when I'm running on a PS5. :)

  106. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where do you draw the line on what difines Computer and what defines Console with the wall beginning to crumble?

    When Sony has root.

    Seriously, do you want a megacorporation deciding what can and cannot be written to run on your computer? Isn't that PRECISELY what we're trying to avoid?

    Oohhhhh... didn't think of that, did you? Sony and Nintendo's licensing policies for consoles make DRM look like a fucking carnival attraction.

  107. Troll by wiggys · · Score: 1

    I guess they must have re-rendered the entire movie for DVD then.

    --

    Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

  108. Re:Hi! I'm off topic by mstyne · · Score: 2

    Probably the same people who said the X-box was going to drop in price after Thanksgiving. Here's a heads up, it didn't.

    --
    mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
  109. PS3?!? Hold on.... by BurKaZoiD · · Score: 1

    I'm not ready yet!

    I'm still trying to gather myself after the amazing performance of the heart-rending "Emotion Engine" in the PS2!

    *Sniff* It brings a tear to me eye...

  110. Re:Hi! I'm off topic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, it did, if you step back and look at how it's bundled now.
    the package price is still 199, but they're tossing in 2 games and the less-monsterous controller. Considering those two titles were still retailing for $49 each prior to the 'new bundle', that's a considerable price change.

    last i heard, there was talk about a $50 price drop sometime before/around june for all 3 systems. Another rumor i've heard recently is that new titles will be debuted at a $39 price point, as all three console companies are aiming for the more price-conscious consumers. time will tell as to what happens, but it seems like a plausable condition to work with.

    personally, i already own all the current consoles... so a price drop isn't gonna excite me too much.

  111. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >If we are only limited by resolution, then why doesn't halo look
    photo-realistic, but TV does??
    Resolution doesn't mean much, I can put CS in 1600x1200 and it won't
    look as nice as Doom 3 in 1024x768 =/
    >
    >
    Because the Xbox technology and the games that use it are basically crap. Take a look at either GT3 or Ace Combat 4 for the PS2. These PS2 games pretty much *ARE* photo-realistic, and I'm not talking about the lame and distored "hi-res" graphics PC Gamers go ape over. The in-flight graphics Ace Combat 4 crank out are nothing short of amazing. It blows away anything a PC flight sim can crank out.

  112. Re:Greetings from Iraq by digital+photo · · Score: 1

    One might think that the programming interface was part of the security system. ;)

    Seriously though, Cel computing would be kind of expensive for a one-use device. More likely, a cruise missle can be just as easily guided by say... a high speed DSP tied with a 32-bit RISC processor on a custom board to handle telemetry and image/position recognition.

    Such a board would be smaller and cheaper.

    One of the reasons why it's always been a mind boggling thing to me why people keep talking about "stealing missles" and/or needing to "steal technology" to build guided missles.

    If you are launching a missle up into the air, then having it come back down in a arc, you basically want it to land somewhere within a 10' radius. That is basically a small Basic Stamp, GPS decoder, gyroscope, and digital compass system.

    Ground based launch site for telemetry/guidance tracking during the launch and partway into the apogee. Internal guidance with image recognition on the descent.

    It would be fair to say that most any 2nd or 3rd year computer science major who's done some image library coding, circuit board soldering, and Stamp programming can easily get a working missle guidance system.

    The really hard part is the construction of the missle and the security protocols to lock down the missle. But if you ignore that, the "brain" is easy to build.

    relatively speaking.

    A PS2 or PS3 would be overkill and a waste of time and money.

    IANA[EWdM]

    (I Am Not A [Engineer/Weapons Developer/Mathematician])

  113. Playstation 3 = Computer by old_skul · · Score: 1

    People keep asking for, and companies keep providing, new features for gaming consoles: - fast RAM - powerful processor - hard drive - network connection - DVD drive - outstanding graphics Seems to me, incidentally, that the more PC components (like RAMBUS) get thrown into consoles, the closer to being full-fledged computers they become. And on a related note, it won't be called a PS3. Didn't anyone read the /. story about how Nintendo sued Sony for the Playstation name and won?

    1. Re:Playstation 3 = Computer by pandrew · · Score: 1

      as for that whole more computer like comment, keep in mind that the xbox really is a pc, just a screwy bios.

      but for the most part, it has a p3 standard ram standard ide etc etc etc, hence teh reason it can run linux so well if modded.

  114. Re:Hi! I'm off topic by mstyne · · Score: 1

    You know, I hadn't considered that. But since neither of those games (Jet Set Radio Future and Sega GT, I think) held any interest for me, I never really thought of it as adding value. But yeah, I guess you're right.

    --
    mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
  115. Hardware is normally at a loss... by digital+photo · · Score: 0

    While it might be true that Sony could be making money now on the PS1 hardware sales, it isn't true of the PS2. At least, not yet.

    Console companies typically don't make money off of the hardware consoles. It is normally from the sale of game development licenses and from royalties of the sold games. (Charge for people to develope and charge when games are sold)

    A typical development license+hardware/software for the PS2 will run you $10,000.00. To get additioanl development software like Metrowerks' IDE, you will pay anouther $5000.00.

    The PS3 will most likely be at a big loss at first. But then again, Sony is intending to market and license the chips to other companies for additional income. The PS3 will most likely be about the same size as the PS2 since most of the chips will be integrated and not spread out into seperate modules. Part of the reason why Sony is going to Cell, I'm sure.

    The Xbox was a modified PC motherboard and graphics hardware. The size was dictated by the motherboard. Sony has the option to shape their boards however they might. Same for Nintendo's GameCube.

    As for cost of the hardware...

    Development of the primary chips is usually in the hundreds of millions if not several billion dollars. Sony invests heavily into R&D.

    The chips on the system cost, I would imagine, about $3-5 each to make in bulk amounts in the 100's of thousands. However, their first few thousand will be in small batches to do testing. This adds to the cost. Then there is the cost of the motherboard design and how all the systems would integrate. The mainboard will probably run about $50-$100 each after assembly in raw materials. The drive assembly about half that. Then the power supply and such.

    After the labour involved is taken into account and when you consider the numer of units made, you are basically looking at a piece of hardware that would cost about $1000-$2000 if bought in bulk and $3000+ if bought in smaller quantities. You'll probably be looking at a PS3 shelf retail price of $499.99 - $699.99. Why would they sell at a loss? Because they make the bulk of the money in game sales.

    A family will probably buy on PS3. But during the life of that PS3, they will buy 20-50 games.

    Games are cheap to make. So let's take your average game of $49.99(round to $50).

    Store/Retailer takes in $25 or so per game.

    The retail price is normally double, at least, of the wholesale price => $25.

    Sony takes in about $12.50 from the sale of the game to the stores.

    The wholesale price is normally double+ of the profit price. => $12.50

    Depending on the royalty arrangement, Sony will probably end up taking another 20% of this: $2.50 or so.

    So, after all is said and done:

    Store: $25

    Sony: $12.50 + $2.50 => $15.00 / game

    Sony also collects license fees and the such for the development of the game, but we can ignore that segment.

    So, at 20 - 50 games per household: $300 - $750

    (Note, my figures are extremely ball-park'ish, so the numbers would vary depending...)

    But given that Sony sells millions of the stations on the opening week and will continue to sell millions for the next 6 months or so each month: 10mil + ( 6 * 1mil) => 16million systems in first half year

    You take that same number and you get something like $4.8 billion - $12.0 billion gross from game sales. (Tax and overhead cuts into that...)

    As more machines are produced, their cost goes down significantly. The first year will be a break-even year. The second year will be major net profits.

    So, initially... for the first year or so, hardware is sold at a loss. But the game sales and licenses more than make up for the cost of the hardware.

    Given the way Sony designs and builds their hardware, it is highly unlikely that the PS3 will be bigger than the Xbox. More likely, it will be round the size of the PS2.

    1. Re:Hardware is normally at a loss... by Drathos · · Score: 1
      Store/Retailer takes in $25 or so per game.

      The retail price is normally double, at least, of the wholesale price => $25.

      Sony takes in about $12.50 from the sale of the game to the stores.

      The wholesale price is normally double+ of the profit price. => $12.50

      Depending on the royalty arrangement, Sony will probably end up taking another 20% of this: $2.50 or so.

      So, after all is said and done:

      Store: $25

      Sony: $12.50 + $2.50 => $15.00 / game

      sorry to burst your bubble, but retailers pay quite a bit more for the games than your figures. i work for suncoast and get the employee discount at best buy which is 5% over cost across the board (wish it was nice and simple like my discount at suncoast).

      some things that works great on (i've gotten minor computer parts for up to 90% off the retail price), but on games i only save 5-10 dollars depending on the game (for ps2 games, haven't bought any xbox or gcn games, so i can't compare the prices there). that works out to roughly $40 per game as the cost for the store.

      --
      End of line..
    2. Re:Hardware is normally at a loss... by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      While it might be true that Sony could be making money now on the PS1 hardware sales, it isn't true of the PS2. At least, not yet.

      As more machines are produced, their cost goes down significantly. The first year will be a break-even year. The second year will be major net profits.

      So, initially... for the first year or so, hardware is sold at a loss.


      yup. it's been about a year or more since the PS2 was launched, so they've pretty much recouped the cost of R&D.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
  116. What *I* care about by $lacker · · Score: 1

    I think it should also have 2 TV outs... or 4 even
    Hell, if I have 4 controllers, 4 players, and 4 TVs... I want to use them. It would kick ass to be able to play that way.

    --


    This post is brought to you by the letters T and A, and the number 69
  117. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by Ami+Ganguli · · Score: 2

    I seem to recall something about Sony adding a BASIC interpreter to their console so that they could call it a computer.

    Might just be in the UK though.

    --
    It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
  118. PSOne at a good clip? PS2 long-life? by Inoshiro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not really. A good clip is how well the GameCube is selling in Japan, usually around 75,000 units a week. The PSOne moves a couple thousand a week. The only people who buy a PSOne are people who want to give the kids a PS for a TV in the rec room, without taking away the PS2 they use for DVD playback.

    The PS2 is nearing the end of its life. For people who only own one console, the PS2 still has some stuff coming out for it that they'll like, but for most of the rest of us the only things interesting on it are titles like Wild Arms 3 and Suikoden 3, which won't be released elsewhere. Things like Medal of Honour: Frontline are out on GameCube and Xbox with extras like multiplayer modes and better graphics. A lot of the titles for the PS2 just aren't as compelling when you have multiple consoles. Onimusha, Metal Gear, etc, are all showing up elsewhere. Why own it on the PS2 when you can have it better on a different console?

    As for the exclusives themselves, there aren't too many. Enough for me to justify buying the console, but not too many in general (Devil May Cry series, Onimusha 2, a few PS2 RPGs, Mr. Mosquito).

    --
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    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    1. Re:PSOne at a good clip? PS2 long-life? by forgotmypassword · · Score: 1

      "The PS2 is nearing the end of its life."

      As long as we are quoting Japanese shipping figures.

      System Dec 16 - Dec 22 Total Sales in 2002
      GBA 325,400 3,146,900
      PS2 154,000 3,511,200
      GC 76,900 1,129,300
      XB 16,200 312,400
      PSone 5,700 219,000

      This generation of console wars is over as far as first place is concerned. The number one system is always going to attract developers and have plenty of good games.

      If all the good developers just diffused to their favorite environment, then why have there been so many good PC games running on DOS and Windows - especially in DOS and especially in all versions of Windows up until about DX5-6.

      Don't let your purchasing choices and ties colour your perception.

    2. Re:PSOne at a good clip? PS2 long-life? by Guppy06 · · Score: 2

      "This generation of console wars is over as far as first place is concerned. The number one system is always going to attract developers and have plenty of good games."

      If you looked at the console shipping figures of 1992 (a year after the release of the SNES in North America), you'd be saying that the 16-bit console wars are "over," with Sega being the clear winner.

      GameCube numbers may be down in North America and Japan, but they are growing quickly. More quickly than Sony's numbers. They may catch up to Sony this year.

    3. Re:PSOne at a good clip? PS2 long-life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The PS2 is nowhere near the end of its lifespan. Not here, not in Japan, not anywhere. How the hell anyone can think so boggles the mind.

      The Saturn died in '99. The N64 died a couple of years later. The Dreamcast is still scratching at the coffin door that America closed on it. The Playstation isn't even comatose yet (people buy it for the library and the price too, you know). Neither is the Gameboy Color. And here you are, asking people to stick a fork in the PS2. Fucking brilliant.

      The PS2 has the largest installed base of all current consoles. A year after the release of the Gamecube and Xbox, the PS2 has continued to outsell either, month after month. Publishers know this, and will continue to follow the money, perpetuating the cycle.

      And don't forget, PS2 is RPG king. A year on, and Gamecube has RPGs that we've seen before, while Xbox has SHITE (Xicat garbage, ports, etc). Your "few PS2 RPGs" translates into "anything worth owning and playing".

      Finally, I've been very impressed in recent days with the longevity of the Dreamcast (KOF 2001), and the variety of the current crop of high-quality games on PS2, Gamecube, and Gameboy Advance. For people without any kind of crazy agenda, pretty much any of these systems is a great buy, considering the variety in their respective software selections.

    4. Re:PSOne at a good clip? PS2 long-life? by forgotmypassword · · Score: 1

      If you looked at the console shipping figures of 1992 (a year after the release of the SNES in North America), you'd be saying that the 16-bit console wars are "over," with Sega being the clear winner.

      The tide did change, but developers did not jump ships in mass. The Genesis was still a worthwhile console to own with plenty of great games being made - all the way up to the end.

      The SNES had superior graphics and sound that were impossible not to notice. The gap in preformance (though noticablem, especially loading speed) is not as great here.

      But more importantly the SNES was only released in 1991! So this little factiod is completely inapplicable. The Game Cube was released in 2001, it is no longer brand new.

      GameCube numbers may be down in North America and Japan, but they are growing quickly. More quickly than Sony's numbers. They may catch up to Sony this year.

      I am afraid that is simply not probable. The gamecube would have to sell much more than its entire userbase in one single year. The market is too saturated for that.

      The best thing that nintendo could do to reach any growth approaching that would be to focus on the connectivity with the GBA, which is by far the most popular device.

  119. PS3...Computer...its all the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    computer (km-pytr) n.

    A device that computes, especially a programmable electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information.

    It's not like this is anything new. As the price of components goes down, the oppurtunity to produce technology that incorporates previous innovations becomes a reality.

    This is a Good Thing (tm). Increase in product base, increase in business to business transactions, stimulation of economy, and...hopefully, some improvment of quality of life.

    Stop trying to extrapolate the differences between consoles and PCs! Why must you classify?

  120. Ever hear of GameCube? Xbox? by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    "Ever hear of HDTV? By the time the PS3 hits the street HDTV should have a major foothold in the market. I'm sure Microsoft and Nintendo's next gen systems will support the higher resolutions offered by HDTV"

    Next-gen?

    Today I can hook up my Xbox and GameCube to an HDTV. Today I can get 480p (Shenmue 2x, Metroid Prime), 1080i (Dragon's Lair), and 720p (the hardest to do, but in THPS4 for Xbox).

    Today I can do these things. Today I can play all my Xbox games in DTS surround, and almost all of my GameCube games in PL2 surround.

    Today the PS2 boasts about 10 titles which have some kind of surround sound support, mainly being DTS or DD cutscenes with the odd game (Socom) which actually uses PL2 surround sound in game (it can't do DD or DTS in game). In terms of support for better than stereo sound and 512x384 NTSC, the PS2 is a joke.

    Right now, the only reason to have a PS2 is for titles you can't get on the GameCube or Xbox (Devil May Cry series, etc). And even that's not guaranteed (Crash Bandicoot anyone? Resident Evil?). Sony has no strong first-party brands, like Nintendo does. Nor do they have the best hardware, like Microsoft does.

    This announcement is Sony rattling its sabre for its PS2 fanboys. Everyone who's serious about gaming has all the consoles, and plays the good games regardless of platform. The PS2 is the weakest, oldest console out there in terms of features and progamability. That's why Sony is sabre rattling. They did the same thing to kill the Dreamcast. I don't think it'll work out the same this time.

    --
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    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  121. Wow by Zonekeeper · · Score: 1

    '1 trillion mathematical calculations per second.'

    Goll-eee son, that'd flat outdrag a chevrolet, yep it would I tell ya.

  122. PS3 architecture by doctor_no · · Score: 1

    Here is a snippet from the Inquirer about the PS3

    "A reliable source close to Sony's plans explained the way the Playstation3 works to the INQUIRER.

    He said that the computers are made of cells, each one containing a CPU, which will probably be a PowerPC, and eight APUs (vectorial processors) each with 128K of memory.

    It will run at 4GHz, producing a not inconsiderable 256Gflops, with the cells connected to the central 64MB memory through a switched 1024 bit bus.

    It's still not clear how many of these "cells" will be used in the Playstation3, but Sony reckoned some time ago it could be as many as one teraflops, probably making it a four cell architecture.

    Optical links - perhaps even FireWire optical links - could be used to share computing power."

    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7078

  123. Rambus outperforms Dual-DDR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And has lower latency:

    http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=50000337

    Get over the "I hate Rambus" fetish, and get beyond 2-year-old smear articles written by paid stooges at THG." Two years after introduction, the fastest memory subsystem for the P-4 is still RDRAM, particularly with hyperthreading:

    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6871

  124. Harddrive reasons flawed. by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    "My Xbox's hard-drive on the other hand is about fucking useless. Yes, it'll save my game on MY Xbox, but it doesn't do me any good when I go anywhere else.
    A hard drive is a good thing. Big-Fat Memory cards are better. There is really no argument here.
    "

    You're revisiting the same arguments that applied to the N64 cartridges (similar to the HD in internal expandability) and N64 memory cards. Memory cards are great to keep all game saves in one centralized device. Memory cards aren't great for things like sports games which track hundreds of stats, games like Morrowind which cache things on the HD, Dead or Alive costume expansions, etc. These are all problems which lend themselves to a persistent storage method like a harddrive.

    If you want to move games between a console, use a memory card. If you want to change how your games play, make the persistency of the world you play in much better, or like to expand entire new modes via online support (Mech Assault downloads, for example, of new levels, mechs, and map modes), you need something like a harddrive. A 64mb or 128mb memory card will not cut it the same way a 10 or 20gb drive will.

    --
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    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  125. Re:TROLL TUESDAY!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that's all good, but what does it have to do with the PS3?

  126. C-net Writers Don't Understand Tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Look at the glaring error,

    "...will contain multiple chips inside a single piece of silicon..."

    chip == die == single piece of slicon

    If C-net can't get some simple termanology correct, how can you trust anything else they write?

  127. In Soviet Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ... the BUS RAMS YOU!!!

  128. Re:overkill? by _Swank · · Score: 1

    there's already a dvi input on the back of my mitsubishi hdtv (ws-55111 or something like that) if that's what you're getting at. it's unfortunately limited to 640x480 @ 60Hz and i don't think i'll ever use it (though there are some interesting tinkering possibilities).

    i would expect that in the future, more tvs will have them and they'll probably even support better resolutions. but if you want to send me a nice signal (from a console), i'd much prefer you just give me a regular hdtv signal.

    i think that would be much nicer/convenient for many reasons -- not the least of which that it would be easier if my do-everything-console gave me the signal i want rather than my tv have to figure out a way to interpret the signal the console throws at me.

  129. This is a rambus motivated situation by Rooked_One · · Score: 1

    Intel just dropped them, and intel is pretty much the reason for them doing any sort of business at all. Now they got some smart geeks with nothing to do, and a bunch of good managers. They know their company will go under, so they offer product very cheap. Not suprizeing that a platform that is only ment for games would love to snatch rambus technology up.

    After all, rambus has always owned any sort of DDR board when it comes to games. Try to find some old rambus vs ddr boards over at hardocp and you will find tons of examples of that. Just makes sense for a video game console producers to jump on a goldmine like that.

  130. In other news by ca1v1n · · Score: 1

    The Xbox2 will have 3 Teraflops peak performance, will cost a lot more, and will have a vast array of forgettably unprofitable games.

  131. Cell technology scares me... by SoVi3t · · Score: 1

    ...ever wanted to play Gran Turismo with your fridge? I can see it now "Error.. toaster not in range for texture generation. Please network water cooler to complete game download."

    --
    Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
  132. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by PyroX_Pro · · Score: 1

    Anyone who doesn't have a coomputer by the next console release is a complete loser, so it doesn't really matter anyway. Right now computers are like TV's in the 50's. In a couple years, every home will have a few. ( But we all know that )

  133. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, it was only a couple of years between the 50's and the 70's, wasn't it?

  134. Re:Impressive - But so did the ps2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, but dreamcast was out way before the ps2 and could easily have matched it without sony's bullying tactics to companies such as ea, and their preventing of games such as half-life, b&w ever being released...

  135. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by PyroX_Pro · · Score: 1

    20 years, but that the time is not what is comparable. Computers have made huge advancements, what major advancments has tv made? ( You cannot count 'features', I mean hardware advances) Besides smaller and more efficient electroncis, and slightly better tuners, they are the same. My tv changes channels no faster than my granparents 1960's tv in their day. The comment was ment as a joke, and you are nothing but another AC.

  136. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone please quit bashing on tps12 just cause he's never heard of HDTV. He can't help it that he's a moronic idiot.

  137. Cell vs. P-4 ?!? by stuartkahler · · Score: 1

    "Cell, which is expected to come out in late 2004 or early 2005"..."will have the ability to do north of 1 trillion mathematical calculations per second, roughly 100 times more than a single Pentium 4 chip running at 2.5GHz."

    I guess it's a damn good thing my video card doesn't use a pentium 4 as the GPU. Quite frankly, with greater than a 2 year lead time, I'm amazed that their GPU can only muster a 100x computing advantage over a CPU. I thought that Nvidia and ATI's current high end already did greater than 100x the computations of a P4.

    Of course, there is no comparison between a GPU running highly parallelized floating operations vs. a CPU running general order dependent machine code.

  138. 480p == 960i by yerricde · · Score: 1

    but neither the Gamecube nor the PlayStation 2 have enough framebuffer memory to run at anything higher than 480p. It's actually impossible.

    Tobal No. 1 for PlayStation was one of the smoothest 3D fighting games from the 32-bit console era because it 1. pushed 512x224 pixels at 60 fps and 2. turned on interlaced mode, giving 512x448 effective pixels. The same can be done at twice the resolution. If you have the VRAM to hold a pair of 480p framebuffers and a 480p Z-buffer, and you have the fill rate to render 60 fps at 480p (the GCN's on-die frame buffer and Z buffer help), you can render 960i by shifting all polygons up half a pixel on every other frame.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  139. Can you verify that? by yerricde · · Score: 1

    Yes, the PS3 will actually be using Linux as it's ROM loader, so in addition to running games you can start it up in console mode.

    URL please?

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  140. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by greymond · · Score: 2
    "Seriously, do you want a megacorporation deciding what can and cannot be written to run on your computer? Isn't that PRECISELY what we're trying to avoid?"


    Isn't that kind of what Sun, Silicon Graphics and a host of other companies who also make systems do?

    Granted Sun systems do occassionally allow for Windows NT as i'm sure if Sony really wanted to merge home entertainment and a computer into one they would follow their same path and have both a Sony OS and allow for redhat based nix distro's as well.

  141. PS3 not scheduled for launch until 2006 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are doing viability testing, not gathering components for the finalized system (though it is conceivable that they will make it, all you have to do is analyze the process of evolution for the Playstation prototypes to see that it is equally conceivable that they will not). Don't even expect standardization until next year, or even 2005.

  142. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by damiam · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't be too impressed by the PS3's numbers. It all depends on the types of computations involved - my Radeon 9700 is easily 100 times faster than a p4 at some 3d-type stuff (matrix math would be one example, IIRC). I highly doubt that the PS3 is going to be the equivilent of a 250Ghz p4.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  143. PS3 is so much better than XBox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All,

    PS3 is way way faster and more capable than XBox. This goes to show once more than MS is holding back the industry.

  144. What is wrong with you? by Jonathan+Hamilton · · Score: 0

    It's not that simple.
    First of all missles don't go in a Arch. Motars and artillery shells travel in a arch. You don't need computers to aim shells that travel in a arch. You need trig. When was the last time you saw a artillery or motar shell with a guidance computer in it? Before motar's and artillery they had these things called "cannons." They didn't have computers back then but guess what. The "cannon" ball in the "cannon" still would travel at a arc. And the good "cannon" aimers could hit there target without these "computers" you speak of.

    Missles travel any path they are programmed to. From what I understand the Cruise missle when it gets within a certain range of the target will switch into terrain targeting mode and follow valleys, go on top of hills etc to avoid radar and being shot down.

    Why do you think a missle defense system is so hard to create? Not just because the missles are going so fast but they don't travel at predictable rates. Such a stupid guidence system of yours would make it very easy.

    And in your little example what the hell is the 2nd or 3rd year computer science major going to program the guidence system in? C? You moron they'd have to write assembly for the specific cpu they used.

    As a 3rd year Information Studies student who does know how to read and follow simple schematics I would have no idea to even go about the thing. I don't know many 4th year or even graduate students that know assembly, much less assembly for a non x86 processor.

    What is the GPS system going to do in your imaginary missle? It isn't much good without a guidance system and a way to steer the missle to the target (like moving fins on the back.)
    Just became a whole lot more complicated.

    What is wrong with you?

    1. Re:What is wrong with you? by K. · · Score: 2

      > First of all missles don't go in a Arch.

      Ballistic ones do, but also need minor corrections during flight. And the first cruise missiles were the German V-1s, and were mechanically simple devices (a pulsejet, a gyroscope and some electromechanical bits and pieces). Their control logic, such as it was, is well within the reach of a a good 2nd-year CSer.

      GPS would improve both types immensely, as in the first they could provide feedback to maintain the proper ballistic (arc) trajectory, and in the second they could just say "stop flying...NOW!".

      --
      -- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
    2. Re:What is wrong with you? by digital+photo · · Score: 1

      Please re-read my original post. You missed some points.

      Not all missles are the same. There are cruise missles, as you note. They are low-flight, radar evasion missles which uses a sophisticated computer with on-board terrain maps and visual images to compare against. They are designed to detect and evade key targets and strike effectively, being only detected by their explosion or when it is already too late.

      That isn't the kind of missle I'm talking about.

      Then, there are the smart bombs which are dropped from planes. They essentially course correct on their way down from the point of being dropped, being guided by laser to their targets.

      Then, there are ballistic missles. Otherwise known as ICBM's(Inter-Continental Ballistic Missles) which uses an Apogee flight path to head up into the atmosphere and come back down after hitting their apogee. From that point on, they are then self-guided to their destinations from a programmed flight plan.

      These are the kinds of missles I'm talking about.

      A variation of which would be the Multiple warhead ICBMs.

      So you are wrong in regards to the issue of apogee in missle flight paths.

      All of the above are hard/nearly impossible to defend against.

      The reason is not that one is more intelligent than the other. The reason is because of their relative speeds. In the case of the MW-ICBMs, the sheer number of warheads and their relative distances from each other adds to the difficulty.

      We have problems creating a missle defense system because the incoming warheads are travelling towards their targets at speeds which by the time the engaging missle were to detonate, even near the missle, the explosion would have missed the targetted missle. The incoming missle would not even need to evade detection.

      With multiple warheads, the problem is made worse by the fact that the warheads now cover a greater region of the sky and it is already unlikely to hit even one with multiple missles. To hit multiple warheads(dozens or hundreds) would be impossible in theory and in practice.

      To borrow your cannon example, if a country could launch mortors into the air towards America from a sufficient distance, we would still not be able to do anything about it. On descent, the relative speeds would be high enough to evade our attempts to stop the projectile. Now, imagine hundreds of such mortors.

      A "stupid" mortor shell with sufficient range would be able to decimate a city and we would have no way to stop the shells from landing.

      It isn't because missles change speed. Planes change speed and we can hit those. It is because of the relative speeds of missles and their relatively small size and profile.

      Missles benefit from guidance systems. I never implied or said that they don't. I suggested that a guidance system would be easy to make. Not that it would be "stupid" or that it would be defficient. My post noted that a guidance system can be made simply. Nothing more, nothing less.

      For your information, the programming language doesn't matter as much as the response time from the guidance system. If your compiler for C or even Basic is efficient, then the resulting code for the chip(s) in question would be effective as a guidance system.

      Btw, if you are in Information Systems, then you are not a CS major. You are headed for a management position. As a CS major, I started programming assembly in a 100 level course. The same was true for C and C++. Both were in my 2nd year of college. And that was only because I was taking plenty of electives. Most people I knew wrote their own programs to control small cars with a modified 8086 motherboard. Ie, self-contained guidance system. You seem to lack the understanding of the underlying hardware and software to really make an informed statement about this topic.

      Since I already pointed out that I never implied or said a guidance system wasn't required, the GPS point is moot since a simple program with a serial interface is all that is needed to communicate with a GPS unit. Any micro controller can be wired to interface with such a standard off-the-shelf unit and to the flight control systems.

      On the issue of flight control systems. Fins are only part of the equation. I would use minimal profile fins in conjunction with vector controlled thrusters. They would be more effective at higher altittudes to make the missle more effective against high flight spy planes and for long range flight through the atmosphere as an ICBM.

      Your lack of understanding of how missles in general work along with your lack of knowledge about how computer systems work results in your flawed interpretation of my post.

      In the future, it might be beneficial to yourself if you actually understood what you were talking about or at least research a little before posting with such an derogatory tone.

      It is obvious what is wrong with you.

  145. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by InferiorFloater · · Score: 1

    Have you actually tried running X on the ps2? It's ass-slow, because the ps2 is basically a graphics accelerator strapped to an auxiliary processor. Even with a version of XFree optimized for ps2, it'd still be subpar. Ultimately, game consoles are computers - just specialized ones. You could use a ps3 just fine, i'm sure, for web surfing, but that's like trying to word-process on your cell phone.

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  146. Pssst... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The PS2's hardware is nothing compared to what it was hyped up to be."

    Nothing ever is. Pass it on. If the PS3 is as good as the PS2 was hyped to be, I'll be content.

  147. Re:PS3?!? Hold on.... by Ziviyr · · Score: 2

    Hopefully the PS3 will include an "Antialiasing Engine".

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    Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
  148. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think that the PS2 is photo-realistic then you have clearly not looked at any photos, ever. Unless you mean "really shitty" by the phrase "photo-realistic"

  149. WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS

  150. PS1 back catalog vs. GB back catalog by yerricde · · Score: 1

    PS2 has the most games.

    The Nintendo GameCube has all Game Boy, GBC, and GBA games. Super Game Boy for GameCube. Coming in May.

    Now who has the bigger back catalog?

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    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:PS1 back catalog vs. GB back catalog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to Warez lists there are some 990+ GB/C games and some 700+ GBA titles.. vs 1051+ PSX titles.... so technically the Gamecube now has a backtitle of nearly 2000 games compared to the PS2s modest 1500 or so titles.

  151. Re: PS2 not dual CPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "It seems to be a common misconception that the PS2 has multiple CPUs. It doesn't."

    Huh? Are you sure you work on a Sony PS2?
    I do development tools for the PS2 and I can definitely say it does have multiple CPUs.
    Check the diagrams in the hardware manuals dude.

    Theres the EE and the IOP which are seperate
    independent CPU's. Nuff said.

  152. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  153. Nintendo and cartridges by yerricde · · Score: 2

    Regarding Nintendo, my beef with them is their resistance of letting go the "game cartridge" mindset.

    Nintendo let go of game cartridges for the tv console as soon as discs had a fast enough access time. When the N64 was designed, most CD games were either cart-style games with CD music or just plain weren't fun *cough*Night Trap*cough*, anything faster than 2x CD-ROM was cost prohibitive, and Mr. Miyamoto did not like to sit at a loading screen. But as disc technology became faster, Nintendo adopted it. Look at Super Smash Bros. Melee: when it freezes to load, it's done within two seconds.

    So how do you think Nintendo's going to get rid of cartridges for a handheld system? First of all, carts for handhelds are usually handled much more roughly than carts for tv consoles ever were. Discs in such a handling environment would scratched to death real easily. A switch to discs would also ruin backward compatibility with software for the previous Game Boy systems. Finally, spinning a disc constantly would ruin battery life. Just look at the difference in battery life between a flash-based MP3 player and a portable CD player.

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    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:Nintendo and cartridges by digital+photo · · Score: 1

      I would say that Final Fantasy on the Playstation would count as a good CD based game which was quite fun. FF7 incorporated video footage with live game scenes. The same was true of FF8 which was released during the time of N64. FF9 was released after GameCube came around, so I won't include it in the list. :)

      I definitely agree with you that adding a CD drive to a game system increases the cost significantly. But at the same time, it also makes production of the copies of the games much cheaper, which is where they would reclaim their loses on the hardware, I would imagine.

      As for the handheld systems, having seen the way my youngest brother tosses that GBA around like a sack of potatoes gives me incentive to agree with you. :) For handhelds, I definitely would go with chips as opposed to CDs.

      And yes, night trap sucked pretty badly.

  154. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by Sentry21 · · Score: 2

    First off I don't know if I like the fact that the word "north" was put in there - IMHO I think the wording could have been better.

    This is just another example of code-words that the Canadian Conspiracy is using to communicate. This particular reference informs me that the PS3 dev team has been infiltrated by our forces, and is preparing to corrupt the minds of your youth and turn them against you, rebelling with peace. All your kids are belong to us!

    --Dan

  155. More specs to get the PS3 rumormill going: by Xeos+Zwei · · Score: 1

    Rumored specs taken from PS3 Resource Centre:

    This was posted by a guy named "Industry Insider" on the forums of Fatbabies (www.fatbabies.com). It's been pretty much unanimously panned by others on there as false due to the seemingly huge system specs (550Ghz processor seems more than a little unlikely), but hey...

    "Just got a faxed memo over from PR at the LA office from SCEA, seems the CPU research and final process specs are bein handed to personel and division managers to leer at today, It's the below portion that must be the test results, but looks like they generalized it to the PR ppl, they have meetings with division managers to deal with licensing and everything, so I'd thought I drop some info on what was sent to me from my division managment people. Remember this was just a memo from SCEA handed to me from my license division realtions manager.

    Sony Computer Entertainment America SCEA c.2002

    IBM Tech/Research Labs

    Sony Playstation 3 Mezzanine Rev 5/10/02 -

    Division Licensing and Departments (Coded Mem) /Dev manager Carol Russman

    Project Update Information Request:

    Sony Playstation 3 Mezzanine (Latin for Steel/Metal) Processor Data: Microprocessor: IBM Grid 256-bit at 550 Gigahertz Primary Cache: 2-way set associative,32KB instruction/32KB data cache Secondary Cache: 8MB DDR,Full Speed SDRAM Main RAM: 1GB system SDRAM Texture Memory: 104Mb/VRAM Graphics SubSystem: Pipes: 16 Graphics pipelines, up to 8 channels per pipe Raster Managers: 4 Raster Managers per pipe - 864M pixels/sec fill rate - Pixel-accurate synchronization (Genlock) and swap sync - 8.3M pixel display and 8 display channels - Full Scene Anti Aliasing, 8 subsample/pixel, 6.1B samples/second - 48-bit RGBA Color - 256MB Texture Memory with texture lookup tables for interactive volume visualization - Hardware clipmapping and real time high resolution texture paging - Subsample round points IBM Grid 256-bit Processor - High clock rate accelerates every system function (550 Ghz) - Four-way superscalar architecture, dynamic out-of-order instruction issue, and speculative execution maximize utilization of processing - Large unblocking cache keeps essential data in fast memory Playstation 3(Grid/EE4/GS4) Graphics Architecture Each PS3 graphics subsystem,or pipe, is composed of a Geometry Engine, four Raster Managers, and a display generator. - Geometry Engine: Four high performance Geometry Engine processors perform lighting calculations and geometric transformations such as translations, rotation, and scaling. Geometry Engine processor also execute image-processing functions such as convolution and histogram equalization-a more effective approach then that of CPUs. - Raster Managers: Raster Managers scan-convert data from Geometry Engine processors into digital images. Raster managers perform pixel operations, including Z buffer testing, color and transparency blending, and texture mapping- and they do so with multisample anti-aliasing at real-time rates. - Display Generator: The Display Generator converts digital data from the Raster managers into analog or digital video signals for a maximum display of more then 8 million pixels per PS3 graphics pipeline or more then 130 million pixels per system. - 1.76TB per second Bus Bandwidth/ultra low latency memory (raw memory) I thought it was kinda odd they sent it here, but I figured it was a media move by the PR to tell me to keep my tongue in check with the other divisions, has to not leak any real definitive specs at the Expo next weekend. Sometimes being the president of Nfactor Studios is hard work, but I enjoy the company here so I'll let this snippet float in here till I get some more hard information for myself, hell next I'll get order claims for dev units soon for the PS3 Mezzanine. Well till then, have fun with the possibilties of this new info. I figured it would shed a focusable attension on this new technology."

  156. Nintendo is doing better than you think. by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    "The Game Cube was released in 2001, it is no longer brand new."

    The entire analogy was how in 1992, the SNES seemed slow and dead compared to the Sega Genesis (released in 1989). This very much applies to the GameCube 2002-end numbers as compared to the PS2 (released in January 2000 in Japan). Applicable? Very.

    "The best thing that nintendo could do to reach any growth approaching that would be to focus on the connectivity with the GBA, which is by far the most popular device."

    Someone wasn't paying attention to E^3, where Nintendo spoke about connectivity as a key part of their strategy. Zelda: Wind Waker will use GBA connectivity, as will FF: Crystal Chronicles. As do many current games (AX, Sonic Adventure 2, Metroid, etc). Nintendo feels that connectivity is easier for people to enjoy than online gaming (due to reach), more affordable to people (one time fees rather than constant fees), and more profitable (all connectivity games boost sales of GameCube and GBA titles).

    Nintendo's very strong. They learned from their mistakes with N64, and they learned from GBA v1. They are the only company I know of which has perfected emulation as a feature (Pokemon Stadium series, AX, etc). Sega has done good work with their Smash Pack series/Phantasy Star collection, but Nintendo is the only game company to release an emulator than has a 2x speed up mode (Pokemon Stadium 2's GBC emulation layer).

    I can't wait to see how Ruby and Saphire will connect to the announced Pokemon GameCube game.

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    1. Re:Nintendo is doing better than you think. by forgotmypassword · · Score: 1

      Jesus Christ people, I am not attacking the GameCube.

      I am refuting the argument that the PS2's future is one with few good games.

      My claim is that, the PS2 has been and is #1, and therefore good games will come at least through the next development cycle.

      The only negative statement that I have made against the GC is that it is improbable for it to surpass the PS2 in one year. I find that to be a reasonable statement.

    2. Re:Nintendo is doing better than you think. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sega outsources all of their emulation work. No Sega team does any emulation.

      GBA Phantasy Star Collection is very buggy with crashes on game saves. I expect to see it go into bargain sections everywhere soon.

  157. Not just Genesis -- SMS by Duds · · Score: 2

    they could have done the same just as easily with the next step.

    The saturn uses a 68000 (Megadrive cpu) as its sound chip.

    1. Re:Not just Genesis -- SMS by Student_Tech · · Score: 1

      And the dreamcast has a SH4 for its main processor, while the Saturn had 2 SH2s (Main CPUs). (Ok, I know that it isn't a secondary chip (sound in most cases it seems) but from what I have read the SHx chips are binary backwards compatible for the most part, just need some sort of "shell" to play with it and make the SH4 do the work of the 2 SH2s). While an idea, it seems people have looked at it already and it isn't going to happen any time soon.

      The DC also has an Arm7 (Yamaha AICA DSP with arm7 at core IIRC) chip (similar to what is in the game boy advanced) for its sound. Someone *might* be able to *maybe* write a GBA emulator the the DC using that Arm7 chip as its main processor, although I don't think it is going to happen.

  158. Re:In Soviet Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    beautiful!!!!!!!!

  159. VGA Output? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [citation]
    Where do you draw the line on what difines Computer and what defines Console with the wall beginning to crumble?
    [end citation]
    The console is defined by the lack of a standard VGA output to connect it to a normal monitor. Period. I would never use a computer if I had to replace my Sony E100 with some jerky 50 Hz 320x240 (or whatever) (or even 512x768) television set.

    1. Re:VGA Output? by greymond · · Score: 1

      You can attach a monitor to the PS2 tho?

  160. Re:Ever hear of GameCube? Xbox? by SilverPike25 · · Score: 1

    Today I can hook up my Xbox and GameCube to an HDTV. Today I can get 480p (Shenmue 2x, Metroid Prime), 1080i (Dragon's Lair), and 720p (the hardest to do, but in THPS4 for Xbox).

    Today I can do these things. Today I can play all my Xbox games in DTS surround, and almost all of my GameCube games in PL2 surround.

    Today the PS2 boasts about 10 titles which have some kind of surround sound support, mainly being DTS or DD cutscenes with the odd game (Socom) which actually uses PL2 surround sound in game (it can't do DD or DTS in game). In terms of support for better than stereo sound and 512x384 NTSC, the PS2 is a joke.

    Take a look at this website:

    http://www.hdtvarcade.com/

    It gives a list of HDTV and DD/DTS ready games for each system. The PS2 has the capability to display upto 480p and some games do support Dolby Digital (I'll have to check my version of Vice City since I have a PS2 hooked up via an optical cord to a Dolby Digital receiver).
    The only complaint I have with the GameCube is that there is no optical cable output and the component cables are not available in Canada yet.

  161. Not quite. by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    " and some games do support Dolby Digital"

    you forgot "during cutscenes only" since the PS2 does not support real-time encoding of DD or DTS audio (nothing does, except the Xbox which has a special chipset exactly for that encoding). The PS2 can do in-game PL2 encoding, but few games use it. I think this might be what that site is saying when they say, "gameplay is 4.1 only" -- except PL2 is 5.0 (no specific LFE channel).

    I wasn't aware that there were any PS2 games that supported 480p. I don't see any that support above that, and there aren't many games which do 480p. I think that's probably the best you'll see from the PS2 ever.

    Maybe you don't know what ProLogic 2 encoding is. It's a matrix encoding where 2 analog channels can contain 5 channels of surround information. That's why the GameCube has no optical cable -- because it doesn't use DD/DTS. It uses PL2. The component cables are easily available within Canada -- just call your nearest Nintendo store. I know there's one in Winnipeg which has the compnonent cables for ~$42 something with tax.

    Check into it sometime.

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  162. Previews are good :) by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    "Jesus Christ people, I am not attacking the GameCube."

    (Note: I am not a "Jesus Christ people" -- I am very areligious. ;))

    When you say something like "The gamecube would have to sell much more than its entire userbase in one single year. The market is too saturated for that. The best thing that nintendo could do to reach any growth approaching that would be to ..." you imply the GameCube is going to fail, and fairly soon at that.

    I simply gave you numbers to go with that statement. If you'd said what you said in this message there, we wouldn't be having this misunderstanding.

    You say that the PS2 will have good games. I don't argue that (and didn't originally). I do argue that it's probably not worth having a PS2, since most of those good games for it will be out on other systems with better graphics and features. As I said originally, "For people who only own one console, the PS2 still has some stuff coming out for it that they'll like, but for most of the rest of us the only things interesting on it are titles like Wild Arms 3 and Suikoden 3, which won't be released elsewhere. Things like Medal of Honour: Frontline are out on GameCube and Xbox with extras like multiplayer modes and better graphics. A lot of the titles for the PS2 just aren't as compelling when you have multiple consoles. Onimusha, Metal Gear, etc, are all showing up elsewhere. Why own it on the PS2 when you can have it better on a different console?"

    The PS2 has few exclusive games that make it worth it. So why buy it on PS2 if you have a GameCube/Xbox? You can go buy Splinter Cell on the PS2 when it comes out, or you could not get a crappy port by buying it on the Xbox. That is what I said: that there is no reason to buy those multi-platform games, because you can get it better elsewhere.

    To summarize: Sony has practically no first-party and second-party titles that are famous and popular (unlike Nintendo, and Microsoft with Rare). If you are the weakest platform (PS2), and the best you can offer is third-party gaming which shows up elsewhere (with better graphics, sound, and features), you will eventually fail. Vice City does not an entire platform make (and I really question the logic of people who buy a console for one game).

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  163. Same game, different box by scribblej · · Score: 1

    While you make an excellent point, I'd like to share my experience with Metal Gear. I've been a fan of the series since the first one, on the NES. I bought a PS2 in part so I could play Metal Gear Solid II, and I quite enjoyed it.

    Then Metal Gear Solid: Substance came out for the Xbox, and I decided it was time to get an Xbox.

    I've only put MGS:S in the Xbox once. I was that disappointed. First off the extras aren't compelling enough to make the difference, but secondly, the game runs slower and more jerkily on the Xbox than on hte PS2! And as far as I could tell, all the models, lighting, and graphics resources were ported from the PS2, so there wasn't any discernable graphic improvement.

    However, I picked up Splinter Cell for the Xbox, and am very, very, very happy with my purchase.

    -Chris

  164. Wrong, wrong wrong. by Jonathan+Hamilton · · Score: 0

    Oh where do I start...

    My lack of knowledge? You sound like my little brother guessing about something he has no idea what he is talking about.

    My grandad retired from the Army working in missles which he had done since the korean war. He use to be stationed in North/South Dakota (Does that tell you anything?)

    My friend/neighbor is in the reserves for the Marines. His Military Occupational Speciality is the TOE and Javalin missle system. He read your post and says "thanks for the good laugh". (He was laughing for a good 10 minutes)

    Information Studies has nothing to do with Management. That is MIS (Managment Information Studies) which is normally under the college of business. Information Stuides is its own school (at least here at FSU, and has nothing to do with management what so ever.)

    I'll just say this, Unless you going to MIT, CALTECH, Rice or some other prestigous university, there is no way in hell your coding assembly at a 100 level course (all the state universities that I know of have no such thing as a 100 level course you mean 1000?) I even doubt you could be taking Core Classes your 1st, 2nd or 3rd semester at college unless you earned college credits in highschool

    Even if you are learning to program assembly, your learning to program assembly for the x86 processor or something else that is common. You going to put a x86 or PowerPC chip on a missle? No, so your going to have to relarn assembly for that specific processer.

    Please if you do actually go to college what college? And let me see a .edu email address with your name in it from that college.

    If you think the missle guidence system is easy to make I suggest you get in the Industry cause you'll make a ton of money for nations trying to develop it.

    I think you lack the knowledge to realize exactlly how difficult it would be to make a guidance system. Your one of those people who know just enough to make themselves dangerous but not anything more. You must not know shit to even suggest that you can program the guidence system in Basic.

    Get a life.

  165. True but not related to the argument. by Jonathan+Hamilton · · Score: 0

    I was talking about our "Cruise" missle not the round about term cruise missle.

    And I think you overestimate the reach of a 2nd-year CSer. They can barely program C, or Java much less even start to program assembly. Maybe all the CS people that I know from FSU, UF, UCF, and USF don't know shit. But even if it is within the reach of a 2nd-yr CSer we where talking about missles of today. Not WWII

    The parent comment dosen't understand why it so hard for Iraq to further their missles range. I'm sure the Al-Hussien missles already have range well outside the V-1. I know the Al-Hussien's are suppose to have a range of 600+ Kilometers. I have no idea about the V-1.

    The parent comment writer is one of those people that understand in Theory how to do something, But his problem is, he thinks he can do it in real life. Sure I understand how a Nuclear bomb works, but I'd be damned if I was give the supplies and told to make one.

  166. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by DohDamit · · Score: 2

    Maybe I'm an idiot, but the biggest difference between a game console experience and a PC experience is that I don't need four PC's to play a game with three of my friends...I can just use my console which either has four plugs available, or I buy a component for less than fifty bucks to make it happen. Just saying...some of us have friends who DON'T want to spend half an hour to an hour getting everything set up so we can play a game.

  167. Another reason to rent before you buy. by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    I'd really enjoyed Splinter Cell, so I went looking into MGS2:S. When I noticed how choppy it was, I knew that the Xbox wasn't the place to buy it. Ditto for Genmu Onimusha. They changed the play mechanics so much that it's not the same game.

    I own the NES cart of Metal Gear, have Solid for PSX (but not VR missions... yet), and Sons of Liberty for the PS2. I totally agree that what Konami did with the port is a joke. That's probably why they've been aggresively dropping the price on it.

    Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2x, though, that takes advantage of the Xbox :)

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  168. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by greymond · · Score: 2

    You just don't play that many games - if your playig a game like Blaze and Blade and have the Sidewinder game pad you can play with up to 4 people on the same computer - as well as if your using emulators like snes9x you can play almost every sports games with multiple people (except basebal for obvious reasons).

  169. Re:PS3 - Start of a new battle of consoles or PC's by DohDamit · · Score: 2

    You're right. I don't play that many games, and I don't have a monitor that does better than my TV with games. Granted, my monitor has higher capability, but it's no 27" TV.

    I would argue that I'm in the vast majority here, and the distinction can still be made for most people who play video games: computer games usually mean one person to a monitor, while console games equal multiple people to a TV.

  170. Re:overkill? by sirket · · Score: 2

    I think Slashdot needs to change its slogan to "News for 12 year old nerds."

    That said, I do appreciate the irony of being called a cretin by a child who has not begun to master the English language. Your grammar is atrocious. Your manners boorish.

    In truth, the only "fucktard" in that entire thread was you. The poster who you so colorfully called a "Fucktard" stated a simple fact and did so quite politely. It was you who chose to drag the thread into the gutter by childishly calling another poster names. When you grow up I do hope you understand just how childish you were acting :)

    -sirket

  171. Re:overkill? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Childish? You're the one that seems to insist on having the "last word".

    Posting anonymously, so that I can also mod you down.

  172. Last Post! by alpg · · Score: 0

    AP/STT. Helsinki, Dec 5th, 6:22 AM. For immediate release.

    In order to allay fears about the continuity of the Linux project, Linus
    Torvalds together with his manager Tove Monni have released "Linus
    v2.0", affectionately known as "Kernel Hacker - The Next Generation".

    Linux stock prices on Wall Street rose sharply after the announcement;
    as one well-known analyst who wishes to remain anonymous says - "It
    shows a long-term commitment, and while we expect a short-term decrease
    in productivity, we feel that this solidifies the development in the
    long run".

    Other analysts downplay the importance of the event, and claim that just
    about anybody could have done it. "I'm glad somebody finally told them
    about the birds and the bees" one sceptic comments cryptically. But
    even the skeptics agree that it is an interesting turn of events.

    Others bring up other issues with the new version - "I'm especially
    intrigued by the fact that the new version is female, and look forward
    to seeing what the impact of that will be on future development. Will
    "Red Hat Linux" change to "Pink Hat Linux", for example?"
    -- Linus Torvalds announcing that he became father of a girl

    - this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...