[Info-vax] OT: SONY's PS4 announcment

[MG]

On 23-feb-2013 17:55, Neil Rieck wrote:
> On Feb-20, SONY unveiled some of the technical details around their
> eighth-generation gaming platform still commonly referred to as PS4.
> They will be shifting away from the custom Cell Broadband Engine
> (a.k.a. POWER) currently found in the PS3 to an 8-core x86 CPU from
> AMD called "Jaguar".

I wonder if this was purely an economical decision?  AMD doesn't seem
to be doing so well, in terms of performance, compared to Intel's
"Core" offerings (last time I checked, anyway).  For that matter, also
not that great compared to NVIDIA, in terms of graphics offerings...

One thing is for sure, after SuperH and MIPS in the 1990s and early
2000s, it's now PPC's turn to get dumped.  I wonder what IBM will
think of this.  Either way, welcome to the x86/-64 and ARM bipolar
world...


> The CPU hype (marketecture?) includes anembedded Radeon GPU which
> they now refer to as an APU.

Well, one thing is for sure: AMD welcomes this!  (APU...  I'm simply
not going to say anything.)


> Apparently, the whole system (main memory and all) will feature 8 GB
> of GDDR5RAM (usually only found on graphic cards).

That's indeed interesting, but it's still not too much memory for the
year 2013.  I mean, even cheap laptops have 8 Gbytes.  I mean, it's
probably fine for the minimalistic operating systems on these units,
but considering that these consoles only see a successor per decade
(almost), I wonder if it will be 'enough'.

It's not a bad thing, that people won't be forced to upgrade; but,
it would perhaps make more sense to have more memory, while 'they
are at it'.


> On the flip side, there are many rumors flying around the net claiming
> that sometime in 2013, Microsoft will announce the XBOX-720 (also heard
> "Durango"). They will supposedly be shifting from the tri-core PowerPC
> found in the XBOX-360 to some kind of x86 CPU from AMD.

What did AMD do to get all of them to take their business up with
them?  Was it an act of desperation?  Now I'm curious.


> So it looks like the video game publishing business (which is way bigger
> than Hollywood)

And quickly becoming nearly as nasty, like 'showbiz'.  Despite the size
and enormity of this (still, growing[?]) industry, there are also tons
of layoffs.


> will finally have an easier time publishing for three platforms after
> the move to x86. My only concern is the amount of viruses and malware
> which will spring up as a result :-)

You mean if these things will run off Windows?  That would be an
interesting spectacle.

But, even if not, then there are still plenty of other weak points.
Should I remind anyone of the massive SQL-injection hacking that was
done against the PlayStation 3 user network (or whatever it is/was
called).


> I never thought I'd see this industry shift from RISC to CISC.

Why, have you been in a coma in the last decade or so?

  - MG