NVIDIA Interview on the PS3
Hack Jandy writes "NVIDIA will be the graphics provider for the next generation Sony Playstation 3. Xbitlabs got an interview with the corporate marketing director at NVIDIA to grab a few more tidbits concerning the next generation console. Some particular highlights; the PS3 will have a graphics engine an echelon higher than the GeForce 6xxx cards today ("most powerful GPU that we've ever created actually") and took NVIDIA over 2 years to design."
Of -course- it's the most powerful one they've created to date.... it's the one they haven't yet released. How often do you hear a company trumpeting their latest non-groundbreaking technology?
Just a guess, but if they never exposed the internals of the graphics hardware to the developers, and instead had them use libraries, then the libraries can be re-writen to use the new hardware. In other words, it's just like switching graphics cards on a PC--you replace the driver, and your software doesn't really care (expect for a change in performance).