| walsufnir said:
and yes, it would be technically possible to emulate the ps3 but sony would have to spend a *lot* of time in it and the games would still not be playable :) |
Look people, it is really very simple. Either Sony keeps the cell architecture reasonably intact with the next processor, or they go Intel/AMD.
There is no x64 processor in the world capable of emulating the cell at even remotely the speed of the PS3 cell. The cell has a PPU and 7 SPUs, each having its own ram. That fact alone creates a complete mess for a multicore processor with unified cache, let alone the fact that each SPU in a cell is a highly efficient calculator that matches the performance of an x64 core.
It is interesting that with every passing day, rumours make the next XBox/PS3 more powerful (and hence more expensive) than the previous rumour of the day. Fact is that the next CPUs will be roughly twice as fast at most than the current ones. This is basically set in stone by thermal and financial constraints posed on consoles. You will never see 8core CPUs and AMD79xx/Nvidia680 GPUs.
I still think that a new cell processor with 3PPUs/8 SPUs or 2PPUs/12 SPUs, with reduced clock speeds, would have been the best solution for the PS4. Manufactured in 32nm, it would be a same die-size, same thermal constraints chip as it is now, completely backard compatible. Even without changing the PPU/SPU design (thus saving a maximum of development costs), and adding a modified 6850 40nm GPU, this setup would be fast enough to drive 1080p screens. With multiple PPU cores, even the lazy developers unable to efficiently use SPUs would be able to get there no problem. If Sony really believed AMD ("Our 2012 CPU will beat the crap out of Intel- so go with us" (that turd really turned out well....) then it's good night for them.
