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Before I get started, let me make something clear: I'm an idiot when it comes to computers. Therefore, what I'm saying might be utter nonsense. If it is, please alert me of my stupidity in a kindly fashion.

Now for an idea I had.

Historically speaking, console technology has progressed at a somewhat predictable pace, especially since the 90's. The following is a chart of the big four console manufacturers' systems since the Atari era by the amount of RAM.

 

Generation Nintendo Sega Sony Microsoft Average
3 4.5 KB 24 KB N/A N/A 14 KB
4 256 KB 136 KB N/A N/A 196 KB
5 4 MB 5 MB 3.5 MB N/A 4.2 MB
6 43 MB 26 MB 38 MB 64 MB 43 MB
7 91 MB N/A 512 MB 522 MB 375 MB
8 2 GB N/A N/A N/A N/A

There are several things to note. First of all, the biggest leap forward ever was from the NES to SNES, as reflected in the SNES's much higher higher launch price. Second, we can see that although the GameCube to Wii jump is definately the smallest, Sega's jump from Master system to Genesis and from Saturn to Dreamcast were fairly modest. In general though, there are patterns. Nintendo put less and less emphasis on tech from the SNES to the Wii, with the Wii U being a reversal of the trend. Sega is inconsistent, but Sony multiplies their system's power about 12-fold a generation, while Microsoft has had a single 8-fold increase.

If Microsoft were content to reenact history, they could multiply their next system's power by the same amount again for a total of about 4GB. Considering the sucess of the 360, there's little reason for them not to do so. As for the PS4, a 12-fol increase would end up at 6 GB. However, unless they wanted to do something complicated, Sony would pick either 4 GB o 8 GB. Considering how their competition would make 2/4 GB the standard, it is unlikely they would want to push it up to 8 GB.

So yeah, based on overly simple math and data from Wikipedia, I've predicted the RAM of futuristic hardware. Any thoughts?



Love and tolerate.