This is along the lines of what Trip Hawkins and his 3DO company tried to say too. He claimed a hardware standard could be created like VHS. Even with the first press release, it didnt feel right to me, and I wouldn't have put money into the scheme even if I'd had any at the time. The problem I have with it, is that consoles are really a different universe to PC's. Standards are fairly irrelevant because the hardware and most of the software is recreated for each product, which is a standard unto itself and is never intended to be compatible with anything else. Maybe next generation chips have the power to stop this cycle, but not at the right price. PC operating systems such as Win2000 or Linux could probably be ported to a console. I dont know if it would be worth the effort. Performance is much more vital in the console arena, and more would have to be taken out than would be left in. By the time youve written the machine-dependant sections, all carefully customised and optimised, you might as well write the rest and make it exactly how you want it. I remain unconvinced of the idea of convergence. I think that at some point, you cant use consoles to perform specific tasks, especially in a manner that is unique to a given user and situation. Likewise, you cant play the one-before-latest-generation arcade games on a $300 PC. Slightly off-topic, but reading some of the material on Linux as a real-time operating system gives me the same sort of feeling. Hard real-time systems arent something that you whack in a module and insmod. Even soft real-time systems arent quite that simple. My point is: horses for courses spooq
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I dont care if they just slap their brand on it, when it comes to hardware, they buy the right companies. spooq
This is along the lines of what Trip Hawkins and his 3DO company tried to say too. He claimed a hardware standard could be created like VHS. Even with the first press release, it didnt feel right to me, and I wouldn't have put money into the scheme even if I'd had any at the time. The problem I have with it, is that consoles are really a different universe to PC's. Standards are fairly irrelevant because the hardware and most of the software is recreated for each product, which is a standard unto itself and is never intended to be compatible with anything else. Maybe next generation chips have the power to stop this cycle, but not at the right price. PC operating systems such as Win2000 or Linux could probably be ported to a console. I dont know if it would be worth the effort. Performance is much more vital in the console arena, and more would have to be taken out than would be left in. By the time youve written the machine-dependant sections, all carefully customised and optimised, you might as well write the rest and make it exactly how you want it. I remain unconvinced of the idea of convergence. I think that at some point, you cant use consoles to perform specific tasks, especially in a manner that is unique to a given user and situation. Likewise, you cant play the one-before-latest-generation arcade games on a $300 PC. Slightly off-topic, but reading some of the material on Linux as a real-time operating system gives me the same sort of feeling. Hard real-time systems arent something that you whack in a module and insmod. Even soft real-time systems arent quite that simple. My point is: horses for courses spooq