If Sony doesn't use an upgraded version of the cell, they might as well leave the console business because no one will want to make games for them. They already pissed off a lot of third parties because the cell was difficult to program for and Sony didn't have very many tools to lend out to ease the process and what they had was expensive. By then the nVidia 280 will probably be dirt cheap and they will use that or something more powerful. Ram is already cheap so they could go 4gb or higher if they wanted. Also, as fast as hard drives are dropping in price they could have 2 tb of hard drive space in there.

edit- forgot blu ray, how dumb of me.  I don't think it will be 200gb like I think someone said.  But it should be 100gb (4 layers) and easily twice the speed, but should be three times the speed.

Well... we're not really seeing what the cell can do from the ps3 since it's limited with just 512MB of ram so...

It will be an improved version which is a plus. Also a faster BD drive is a must...... or...... or..... am going to write a lot of angry letters >:(

I predict that it will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own it.

Theoretically, it could be used for dating too, but it would eliminate the thrill of romantic conquest.

And if Microsoft want anything near as powerful as the Cell, they're gona have to spend a hell of a lot of money to research and manufacture it..... so I can see Microsoft with a big problem in the future. I can't see an expensive Xbox 720 competing with a cheaper PS4 when they will be of equal power!

Well i have always been a playstation customer owned all of there systems but if they launch the ps4 anything like they did with the ps3 then i wont be buying one ill definately change to MS console.

If these rumours about the PS4 are true, it means Sony have learnt from their mistakes. I see it launching at $400 in late 2011 or sooner and will be easy to develop for compared to the PS3. If they actually do this, they could very well return to the PS1/PS2 days of domination.

yer i really hope they do what they did with ps2/ps3

"Updated version" of Cell makes a lot of sense: it may be much more powerful than the current model, yet it would make BC a lot easier and it would cut research and development costs. By no means it deny the possibility that PS4 will have enough new features to be considered a new product (*). In 4 years a new Cell 4 times as powerful could cost lesss to produce than the current one costs now, also a completely newchip as much powerful would cost the same after a while, but you should add initial development costs again and BC would be more difficult. Games production would be easier and faster too, having mature development tools. Sticking to Cell architecture and BD discs, instead of changing everything, would allow PS4 to have a launch price within $400, to start earning earlier on HW too and to afford a price drop to below $300 in two years without losing on HW.

(*) Just like Macs, GC's, Wiis, XB360's and even PS3's all have CPU's with PowerPC cores, but they are definitely different products.

I know what price it won't be. $600.

In a perfect world, Sony will launch at $400 dollars or lower.

It seems to me that Sony have the advantage already