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Sony's 'Cell'-based TV Ready By 2006
News for nerds writes "Sony Corp plans to offer a broadband television by 2006 that would incorporate the powerful new 'Cell' processor it is developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp. The Cell processor is expected to power the upcoming PS3 console, a workstation, server, and other home appliances to form Cell-based P2P network. The sample production of the processor has already started. In PlayStation 3, TV props you!"
They could be Apple x 10, if they didn't use proprietary hardware?
I knew my comment would draw this sort of reaction. It's horribly out of date. First off, I own a G5 and a PowerBook, so call me biased if you want to. But, lets take a look at what can be found on them:
FireWire 400/800 - Standard. Used in computers and new set-top boxes
USB 2.0 - Standard.
Ethernet - Standard. Gigabit too, no less.
802.11g - Standard.
SATA Hard Drives - Standard.
AGP - Standard
PCI - Standard
DVI - Standard. You might pick a bone with ADC, but that thing is cool. Power, USB and DVI in one cable saves tons of wiring mess.
So, I suspect your argument comes down to their use of the Power processor. It's a huge misconception that this is proprietary. Sure, Apple is the only PC manufacturer to use them, but PPC chips are found in all kinds of embedded devices. PPC gets used, and it gets used a lot. IBM and Freescale (ie Motorola) make them and it wouldn't surprise me if other smaller companies did too.
That said, I also prefer PPC processors to x86 ones. The design is much more sensible and also gives much better performance to power used ratio. I'm sorry, but I don't want the latest AMD or Intel monstrosity sucking juice from my outlet like it was a keg at a frat party.
In short. Apple uses very little proprietary stuff these days. Yes, there are exceptions. However, what they do usually is done in the sake of ease of use for the consumer, wheras Sony does it to treat you like a criminal who is out to steal and cheat them.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Nobody cares how crappy the APIs are if good tools provide wrappers that are actually useful, you blithering idiot.
Betacam SP is another story entirely.
:)
It's the television video editing standard. Everyone uses it. Why? It's quality shit. ESPN, the six o'clock news, Jeapordy... all of gets transferred on Betacam SP tapes.
Good stuff.
Sony OCCASIONALLY gets it right.