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PS3 and XBox 2 Processors to be Exactly the Same?

Posted by Zonk on from the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other dept.

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.

8 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. If the PS3's processor... by HaloZero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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
  2. Sony??? by kannibal_klown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  3. Porting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since the PS3, XBox2, and Mac all use the same processor, porting games should be a snap, right?

  4. Hmmm by polyp2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  5. Unforseen dissection? by Sentry21 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  6. Pretty clear whats going on by Zeromous · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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    ---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
  7. Re:Huh? by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.'"
  8. ...On the 3rd day by slumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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