PlayStation 4′s architect Mark Cerny has told VG247 that the console’s “super-charged PC architecture” will give Sony and developers more customisation than they’d find on PC, helping to give the console more room to expand and improve throughout the next-gen cycle.

Speaking with Dave Owen at a recent event, Cerny stressed that PS4 was designed to offer any developer – be it a small indie or a triple-a powerhouse – flexibility and room to create technically proficient experiences.

“We wanted the focus to be on the games that the creative directors wanted to make,” he explained, “rather than the minutiae of the hardware. That’s universal. That’s true whether you’re talking Destiny with their 700-strong team or you’re talking one guy doing everything. They want to focus on the creative vision.

“At the same time we have to balance that out with a rich feature set that they can use in the later years of the hardware. The hardware has to grow over time. That’s why I refer to it as a super-charged PC architecture – there’s more in it than what you find in a PC.

“There are all these customisations, such as what we did to the GPU and other parts of the system to ensure that they would really be these systems that programmers could dig into in year three or four of the console life-cycle.”

Such customisation will allow the PS4 to expand with new capabilities moving forward across the next cycle, both meeting the demands of developers and reacting to new trends within the industry. As the base PS4 architecture will remain largely the same for years, developers will have a long time to get to grips with it, and slowly learn any new facets as they emerge.

Cerny continued, “The developers really have a chance to study that architecture because it doesn’t change for many years. They can learn its secrets and get progressively better performance out of it. Consoles also provide a stable platform.

“This is really important because some developers need five years to create a game. The fact that during that five year period the target hardware doesn’t change really allows them to bring titles to the world that couldn’t exist otherwise.”

What do you make of the console’s PC-like architecture? You can also check out my recent interview with Warframe developer Digital Extremes which, thanks to the PS4′s architecture managed to port its shooter to Sony’s console in just three months.

Stay tuned for our full Cerny interview later today.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/12/ps4s-super-charged-architecture-offers-more-customisation-than-pc-says-cerny/

What a load of crap, that's the only polite way I can say it. :P

Referring to this part specifically: "At the same time we have to balance that out with a rich feature set that they can use in the later years of the hardware. The hardware has to grow over time. That’s why I refer to it as a super-charged PC architecture – there’s more in it than what you find in a PC."

Why? What he said is true... the changes didn't exists in PC yet... there are more features in all parts.

It isn't true, they're advertising.
Like Microsoft claiming the Xbox One provides "Super Computing" levels of performance.
Both claims are laughable at best.

I'll be impressed when the consoles can do 4k resolution gaming, which is still 20-30% less pixels than my current set-up.

It's a super changed PC architecture... it's true... nothing wrong here.

What Cerny says is that they get the PC architecture and made a lot of changes over it to make easy and better for game developers than PC... he never said the PS4 is a super ultra high-end computer lol... the GPU itself have a lot of features not found in PC.

They don't need 4k... HDTVs are 1080p lol... the 4k is yet recent and will be popular in 10 or more years.

Although i'm Sony biased but also a PC gamer i'll politly say nah don't think so.

Unless PS4 allows Mods of games (would be awesome) the intrinsic being of PC's are in it's customisibilty.

1001 different setups as opposed to 1 strict arcitecture..

Sorry for bad spelling i'm still pissed :)

That's the strong point of PS4... you make the developers just focus in the game development and not these 1001 different setups... that's one of the points that Cerny is talking in the interview.

That was one of advantages of consoles over PC.

Hardware customizations to focus in games.

I can list somethings...

+ There are fixed and auxiliary units / co processors
+ There is a direct and widen bus for the memory pool
+ GPU have 8 ACEs and 8 Queue Pipelines
+ The parts are interconected (lower latency communications than PC)

These are customizations...

Charged, not changed and it's nothing of the sorts, it's a mix of low-end/mid-range hardware where the majority of it's technology was invented first on the PC for PC gamers and not invented for the consoles, AMD and Sony made some minor changes but on the whole it's not that different and certainly nothing that's a game changer.

Taking this line: "The hardware has to grow over time. That’s why I refer to it as a super-charged PC architecture – there’s more in it than what you find in a PC."

He makes it out as if the PS4's hardware is going to improve over time and that it's better than the PC, simply not the case in the real world, you can't upgrade *any* of the hardware except the Hard Drive and I would bet my left kidney that my PC has more hardware in it than the PS4 has.

And yes you are right, HDTV's are 1080P or lower, but 4k is available, today.
It just hammers in the point that the consoles are already a Generation behind the PC. :P

I think some may be reading it wrong. Saying that a PS4 is a low spec PC is wrong as well.

Go ahead and show that $400 PC that out performs the PS4