Slashdot Mirror
PS3 and XBox 2 Processors to be Exactly the Same?
themuffinking writes "IBM (the manufacturers of some of the parts for the PS3 and Xbox 2) told Alex Albrecht that the processors they are putting in the new PS3 and Xbox2 are going to be the same processor, with the parts around it arranged slightly differently. Alex pried this information out of an IBM employee, likely while interviewing him for the show on which Alex is a cohost, The Screen Savers. Alex equivocates by saying "Now again, this is a rumor... so no Slashdotting". Too late for that, but keep in mind this is just hearsay at this point.
"No Slashdotting" is a sure way to get slashdotted, just as sure as saying "I'll get modded down" will get you modded up.
I doubt Sony will actually do this, since they are developing their own "grid" technology in their console and are not known for outsourcing the core of their business.
With that said, Alex is awesome. I liked Patrick and Leo. I liked Leo and Kate. I even liked Kevin and Patrick. I really like Kevin and Alex. The show is more immature now, but it's a lot funnier too! Alex is one of the funniest tv personalities I have ever seen.
PS - Vote tomorrow(if you're a US citizen registered to vote).
...is a PowerPC G5, will Sony use an emulation layer to make PS2 and PSX games cross-evolution compatible? I can't see them breaking that trademark functionality now, when the console market game is really starting to get interesting.
Informatus Technologicus
I thought the big thing with Sony was that they made pretty much everything in the PS2, so they didn't have to rely on other companies and suppliers, and thus got it at cost.
Going with the same CPU and the XBox 2 (with similar components) is going to mean that Sony is going to have to rely on external suppliers.
Since the PS3, XBox2, and Mac all use the same processor, porting games should be a snap, right?
Its been known for a long time now that both Mirosoft and the Cell where to have an IBM power based core... So build it up with some vague hype, and you get this article. Of course IBM gave their most recent power core to both of them, did you really think that either MS or Sony wanted an old PPC core? They both are looking and paying for the bleeding edge power core, which is what they got. Did anyone tell them Apple is going to be using the same CPU core too, oh no!!!! Geez what hype.
I remember reading something along these lines on the register or was it here on
...
slashdot
It is certainly true to say that IBM are having to do with the new cell chip- but it is also doing this in partnership with hitachi and sony.
If the PS3 is to be using G5's (which are available now) then how come they are specifically branding it as CELL, plouging development costs into it when the chip already exists? Its idle speculation - and who knows who this infomation anway it could be IBM's tea boy for all we know
Nick...
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
IBM is also making the Gamecube chip. So if the gamecube get's a different chip, will it be less powerful? IBM must be in a tough position and probably has to make sure that each chip perform about the same.
#####Free and Open Source Game Directory#####
As it says on his weblog, they are supposedly rearranging the components on the motherboard and hoping that Microsoft and Sony won't notice.
Honestly, I can't believe that a giant like IBM, or any of its decisions, would not forsee someone at Sony tearing open an XBox2 or someone at Microsoft tearing open a PS3, stripping it down to transistors and seeing what makes it tick. If I were working on the XBox2 team I'd have two PS3 preorders in as soon as I could - one so I could have, and one so I could dissect.
This is likely BS meant to start an uproar, or a misinterpretation (i.e. perhaps they are both using G5 processors with slight differences, or the chipset is slightly different). The machines won't be identical beyond what's required by the processors, I'm sure.
--Dan
I heard that the next XBOX will be red! I'm serious! Can we post it on /. please?
MS had switched to PPC prior to the introduction
of XBox. Sony had planed to do something like a CMP game cube (sound familiar- PS1 and PS2 came out of Nintendo plans.) Sony borrowed the Cell fluff from IBM marketing hype. You can find the Cell buzz in the industry and occassionally in IBM stuff way prior to the partnership with Sony. Sony's Cell development money is really about becoming a PPC member and gaining a fab.
Ironically IBM would practically do that for free- its probably marketing money save for Sony trying to suck off the forbidden blue gene hype.
IBM has also announced that it has selected ATI to do the Graphics chips for the PS3. What does that say? What it really says is that these things are Apple PCs. Note the the Game Cube was nothing but a iMac G3. And an iMac G3 is nothing but a PCI PC running PPC and a unix varient. It might as well be a Linux PC.
Tie it all together and we see MS hedging its bets just like it did with MIPS, Alpha... and the original NT.
Bottom Line: All consoles are going to be WIN/XNA PCIe BTX(like) PPC varients of the Media Center PC. MS wins!
Don't think so? Remember Sony in the DVD forum saying that WMVHD would get included in the format over its dead body? Why is WMVHD now going to be included not just in HD-DVD but also in Blu-Ray? Why the changed time lines for the consoles? Why all the rhetoric from Peter Moore about Sony and Nintendo just Using XNA? Why all the lovie dovie between MS and Nintendo. Why is Nintendo saying its not about Hardware? Because it isn't.
THIS STUFF IS REAL.
So what is the difference between an Apple and a PC? Not much. Its operating system. If a PC were to somehow show up with an Itanium varient would it be a PC? Yes. What if it really were an 'IBM PC' (ala PPC) running Win/XNA? What if it were an IBM PC running Apple OSX? That is what a Mac is: a PC running OSX. And guess what, a PS3 will no be nothing more that a VAIO branded XBOX2. And NT on PPC helps MS with the embedded market.
And while we are at, lets realize that WiMax and big hard drives coupled with streaming and background downloading make the next gen optical disk (HD-DVD;Blu-Ray)and CES irrelevant.
True convergence is upon us. Next step involves serious losses in the Satilite,Cable,Telco, video store, software retail sectors.. and also in CES and CES retail.
Watch and see.
Seems to me, that both the Xbox and PS2 will use a powerpc core.
Now as anyone knows, this does not make two processors the same. Its obvious this is speculative hype, hinting at something many observers have suggested over the past few months with the announcement of IBM supplying XBOX2 chips.
Let's not forget there is something else to Sony's chip design. It was designed by Kenny-boy remember? in *cooperation* with IBM? Hmm sounds like a propietary architecture based on a powerPC core to me... likelihood of a Ken Kutargi chip in an Xbox? not bloody likely.
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
Sony has previously announced (no reference sorry) that the cell will be delayed until a future playstation model, probably (?) the fourth generation unit. I guess they're not cheap enough yet to actually put them into all their devices, nor do the majority of sony devices yet have the i.Link (aka IEEE1394) that will be necessary to make the cell useful in a distributed fashion.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I might be crazy, but I have a theory where game companies consoles have the most success with their 2nd system and begin puttering out with the 3rd system...
1. NES...Good system...great seller
2. SNES...Best system of all time
3. N64...UH-Oh, not a bad system, but Uh-OH
We're now soon approaching the PS3, which I think may follow in the footsteps of the N64, which was a decent system, but nowhere close to the success of PS1 or even SNES. Therefore, I predict Xbox2 will emerge as the new "PS2" and we'll enter Pax Microsoftana for a while until X3 or whatever we call it. Same can be applied to portables....GBA is amazing, but will the DS, or 3rd entry into the fray be successful? Following my arbitrary model, then no, although I'm hoping it is.
Thank you for reading
http://www.commaecho.com