Hmmm Backwards Compatability is a HUGE issue with PS4 it would seem. Also Intel and AMD had faster processors on the market before Cell arrived. ( For PC's ). The future is GPU and CPU on 1 chip. That is the direction Intel are taking and say it makes a HUGE difference to gaming rig PC's. I see M$ adopting this for there next console, Sony have to as well really as PC game devs will adopt this combined method. If Sony don't they will alienate more devs to not develop for them as it will be even more time consuming and costly than Cell is.

Sony do the right thing for business and follow the PC boffins. I personally see no advantage of Cell over 360 for graphics or anything else. ( I said personally ) So do the right thing for money and business.

I could be wrong, but I expect next generation console manufacturers to take a different approach than they took this generation in a large part because of the success of the Wii ...

To put this in the simplest way, I would expect manufacturers to take low cost energy efficient hardware and increase the processing power to a level they desire for their console rather than try to produce the most powerful hardware. A theoretical example of this would be to take a quad core Intel Atom processor, increase it to being a 6 core processor, and to increase the clock speed by 50%; and then to pair it with a mid-range "gaming" laptop GPU. The end result of an approach like this would be a small affordable console that is (potentially) very reliable and yet still is a noticeable improvement over what was produced this generation.

If you say so.

I don't think so!

The GPU/CPU on a chip solutions are for entry or mobile solutions, but not for gaming.

Intels approach in high-end gaming, larabee, is still unproven so i won't comment on that.

But it's not relevant anyway, cause larabee is just: cpu doing stuff, the reversal of gpgpu (in short: gpu doing cpu stuff) and not the classic integration of cpu and gpu on 1 chip. I think Larabee still needs a host cpu.

Regarding the cell discussion:

I like the cell, but the ps4 doesn't have to rely on it, cause i still believe the ps4 is going to have a discrete nvidia or maybe ati graphics solution.

The fermi is going to have about 520-630 Gflops DP, so there might be enough "easy accessible" extra power to compensate a missing cell, while rendering the image at fullhd.

p.s.

I know, there are the kyro rumors, but i still don't thrust them. Kyro couldn't compete on the desktop for years! On the other hand, Ati and Nvidia are dominating and investing billions into R&D. And even though TBDR was a advantage 6 years ago, it's not so big anymore today. Imho, the hot topic for the next 2 years is GPGPU, can kyro compete ?