PS4 will not have a cell, but still be backwards compatible?

[fordy]

Tom3k said:

fordy said:

Andrespetmonkey said:

 

The way I see it there are two possibilities:

1) Streaming. Maybe that Gaikai acquisition will result in some sort of pseudo BC, allowing us to stream PS3 games we own. Maybe if the disk is inserted into a PS4 it would make that game available for streaming (1 disc locked to 1 PS4). This could end up being quite expensive for Sony (having people use there hardware/servers for free), but the costs could be offset with paid streaming of PS1/PS2 games, a long with whatever else Gaikai could offer.

2) Separately sold BC dongle. By that I mean a little box of some sort with a cell processor and maybe an RSX in there. Sony could sell it for $50 or so, make a decent profit off it. This was rumoured btw.

Don't count of there being backwards compatibility at all though.

 

And what would this dongle plug into?

Unless the PS4 has technology similar to Thunderbolt, it's going to be impossible running the entire process from USB.

Since it's based on AMD's CPU and GPU it could ahve http://www.anandtech.com/show/5413/amds-lightning-bolt-low-cost-thunderbolt-alternative-for-usb-30dp

DisplayPort, USB3 and Power.....I think if you wanted to have a high-speed communication to an external device, it would need to be connected higher up in the hierarchy (such as PCIe, which is what Thunderbolt provides). USB3 is 5Gbit maximum (500MB/s after 8:10 ECC), PCIe can consist of more lanes to push data through  (Almost 2GB/s/lane).