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Nvidia Partners with Sony on PS3 GPU
Anonymous Coward writes "Just a rumour last year, but it looks like Sony and Nvidia will be partnering for the PS3. Sony will be doing the manufacturing in one of their Nagasaki plants." From the article: "The move signals a shifting of allegiances for NVIDIA, who developed the graphics hardware at the heart of the original Microsoft Xbox, only for the Redmond-based platform holder to turn around and partner with fierce rivals ATI for 'future Xbox products' last August."
Well, I'm actually glad that Nvidia has found a new dance partner after the falling out with Microsoft with respect to the next Xbox. With both Nvidia and ATI now firmly in the console wars as competitors, I think gamers are in for some serious treats. I just hope that gameplay won't be lost in all of that eye-candy!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Can you explain why a "hacked together backwards compatibility thing" would affect developing for the thing?
I'll tell you what effect the PS1 emulation had on PS2 development: none whatsoever. I don't see it being different here. Developing for PS2 is/was a bitch for many reasons, but backwards compatibility is not among them.
What makes nVidia so certain that Sony being easier to deal with then Microsoft?
Microsoft basically demanded that they be able to renegotiate the deal once they realised how much money they were losing per xbox and asked nvidia to just give up their money.
They also demanded that Nvidia hand over all their patents so that Microsoft could give them away to whoevers going to make the Xbox2 chips, so that they could be backwardly compatible.
However bad sony is they can't be as bad as microsoft to deal with.
Oh and Nvidia will presumably benefit from Sonys chip making expertise and will be able to use their fabs to produce high end graphics chips for PCs at cheap prices - rather than having to pay TSMC through the nose...
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
(IMHO, Nintendo should release an ultra-gameboy-player, with slots for the NES, SNES, N64, gameboy (advance), and, hopefully, DS, and also gamecube compatibility)
And I'm sure they'll win numerous design awards for their accomplishment. Seriously, that would turn out being one buttugly console, what with the variously sized slots all over the place. Imagine a 6-in-1 memory card reader, except at least 9 inches square. Not to say I wouldn't mind seeing it done...
Actually, that's not true at all. Remember the Dreamcast? Oh yeah, the Dreamcast. It was first to market by far... and lost.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Why bother emulating it when you could simply license from Intel a mobileP3
Because that would add cost to each Xbox2 sold.
Since ideally the GPU of the xbox was made to MS specs they can give the info to ATI
The graphics chip was designed by nvidia who licenses Microsoft to manufacture the chips, but not any derivatives. To make another chip that was backwars compatible Microsoft would need to pay nvdia more license fees to cover the patents which again would add to the cost of the xbox 2.
Tada Xbox 2 is backwards compatible with a few minor code tweaks and hardware adjustments.
Except that the Xbox2 probably won't have a hard drive.
Why does everyone think this is going to be so hard?
You are wrong because:
Anything You Don't Understand is Easy to Do.
Example: If you have the right tools, how hard could it be to generate nuclear fission at home?
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne