Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sony, IBM Announce Cell Workstation For PS3 Dev

Posted by simoniker on from the give-me-sequels-or-give-me-death dept.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing the little-heralded Sony announcement of a Sony and IBM co-developed, Cell-based workstation for PlayStation 3 (and other) content creation. The article explains: "The workstation, which will ship before the end of the year, will feature an architecture based on the parallel processing Cell chip [also to be used in the PlayStation 3], and will be designed to power digital content creation for movies, television and videogames." GI.Biz also quotes an un-named industry figure as suggesting: "Microsoft should be really worried by this... They've been touting Xbox 2 to their partners and talking about the kind of content they want to see created on the platform - more polygons, higher resolutions, more effects - and our response has been that the tools to create this stuff for games don't really exist yet. Now Sony has effectively created those tools."

13 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. While this is exciting news... by clu76 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Better technology does not always translate to better video games. I'm sure what ever Nintendo or Microsoft use for their next gen architecture will be comparable to the PS3. As for home media centers, I bet Sony will eventually wipe the floor with Microsoft.

    --
    the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
    1. Re:While this is exciting news... by kabocox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As for home media centers, I bet Sony will eventually wipe the floor with Microsoft

      I'm personnally betting that the PS4 would be Sony's grand attempt at a universal media server. PS3 is too soon. They are playing around with PVR products and have their eye on the home media center. IBM has their interests o.k. in being chip R&D and making the chips. Sony could do this by themselves, but it does make sense to partner with an MS rival. Nintendo is not rivaling MS in anything but game consoles. Nintendo is more likely to be bought than beat though. (Actually, it would have made alot of sense for MS to do that.) I think the XBox is MS's early attempt at game console/home media consoles.

      These are just my personnal thoughts on the subject.

    2. Re:While this is exciting news... by gabe · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Microsoft did try to purchase Nintendo. They said no, and now we're afflicted with the Xbox.

      --
      Gabriel Ricard
  2. DEV KITS! :) by ChibiLZ · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow. I have to say I am so amazed. Get this: Sony has released DEV KITS for their new console. I've never heard of this before! This must be that new-fangled, next generation game development stuff here. Personally, I found it MUCH more interesting when M$ started sending out G5's as Dev Kits. I tried to tell them I'm writing up a great Xbox 2 game, but alas, no Dev Kit to my door.

    --
    Don't buy WoW Gold! Make it yourself!
  3. just the dev station by johnjones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    this seems to me just to be the dev station like SONY gave out for the PS2
    (they call it something like PS2Tool)

    big deal or not ?

    o BIG deal at least the hardware is sort of final (can be changed but not likely) that means they taped out and just need to do mass production

    o NOT does not say anything about the device or that it includes silicon from the PS3 or just running an emulator

    o lets face it you can use all of the tools to do graphics like they do in the movies and games at the moment Maya, 3DS Max and games engines are pretty good about seperating out the display from the AI, sound, physics

    now can someone actually give details like a block diagram of the chip ?

    regards

    John Jones

  4. Not needed by PktLoss · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Building an engine around being able to do x,y & z doesnt nesesarily mean needing to have the equipment to do it all in front of you. Build your engine to be able to do it all, use a high end machine, and downsample your textures and such untill you get a machine that can handle the high rez copies.

    Given the choice its always nicer to have the platform be available to you, but you can do a lot before you get to that point (assuming the specs are set in clay).

    --
    paul reinheimer
    1. Re:Not needed by AltaMannen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It is not really so much about designing a pipeline to push polygons and textures for a generic target as it is about how to find the optimal pipeline and vertex/texture/feature balance so that content can be created to fit perfectly to take the most advantage of the machine.

      On a PC you generally can't determine an exact balance and load for rendering so you more or less have to create art that can scale with the machine but on consoles you don't have to do that and you can work with a known target.

      The best-looking console games are always the result of a lot of time spent with the real hardware.

  5. What OS by polyp2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hmm, IBM, Sony, new chip , not wanting to give M$ a lead ... I wonder what OS this thing will be running..

    Could potentially be very very tasty.

    nick...

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    1. Re:What OS by AltaMannen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My guess is Linux: Used in the ps2 tool, used for the original set of tools (which were quickly recompiled for windows), and it is cheap :) And IBM seems to like it too.

  6. Its not even /that/ exciting by *weasel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're announcing the dev kits that should ship 'sometime' before the end of the year.

    Personally I see it as the Sony PR FUD machien is running again: "no no, our machine will be much more powerful than theirs".

    It worked the last time they were going to show up a year late to the next hardware generation. Why not go back to the well?

    --
    // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
  7. Re:Why is this good for Sony? by News+for+nerds · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cell is a generic grid-computing processor. It means, the same hardware block can be used in this workstation, PS3, rack-mount server, home appliance, and other devices from Sony and IBM. The difference between those various hardwares is only the quantity of Cells equiped in them, so this workstation is not specialized hardware bound to a specific market. When PS3 ships, the scale merit of Cell production will soar dramatically, which is what SGI couldn't do.

  8. Re:Isn't IBM also making the PPC chips for Xbox 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Make that "playing all 3 sides", as they're also working with Nintendo on the "GCNext". IBM will make loads of money next generation no matter what happens. Lucky them.

  9. Oh-aah by justin_saunders · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "...will feature an architecture based on the parallel processing Cell chip [also to be used in the PlayStation 3], and will be designed to power digital content creation for movies, television and videogames."

    Sounds like a G5 to me. Maybe Microsoft should...hang on, they already did.

    The GI.biz article tried to make out having same OS on DevKit is a big deal. It aint. As a console programmer, I've found DevKit OS makes very little difference to host OS. Any embedded systems programmer will tell you this is called "cross-compiling". The PS2 dev kit is actually running Linux, but most folks use Windows to develop the software.

    Its kinda cool to have a new player in the workstation market however. Should give Apple a run for their money...

    --

    "My cat's breath smells like cat food." - The Tao of Ralph Wiggum.