Sony's Massive Advantage: PS3 Processing Power

[wraggster]

If you look at the central processor in Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360 you will see something that can trace its ancestry right back to the Intel 8086 of 1978. Over its evolution this has forced endless fudges and compromises. An analogy might be trying to build a working supertanker on the plans of a model rowing boat. And the 360 itself owes its architecture to the IBM PC of 1981 and so carries with it the accommodations that this architecture imposes. These factors, ultimately, must impinge on the working of the console.

Compare that to Sony (SNE), who were able to design the processor and the console it is in with a clean sheet of paper. The Cell processor, designed jointly with IBM and Toshiba at a cost of $400 million is the state of the art in processor dessign. It is scalable, highly flexible and excellent at distributed processing.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/5382...ocessing-power

[I xfire I]

minimal, not massive

[turnerl]

360=pc in a box, will be outdated just like any other pc hardware in a year or so.

PS3=Cell Baby!!! all the way!!!

[zevende]

WRONG!!!
The Xbox 360 uses a custom PPC based CPU. No relation whatsoever to the 8086 or the entire x86 architecture for that matter. The original xbox did have an x86 based CPU, so I can see where this mistake could've came from. This article is completely inaccurate, and it's a shame it made the front page.

[turnerl]

360=macinstosh in a box then.

[zevende]

360=macinstosh in a box then.

You're making the issue too simple. While the PS3 has an advantage in the cell processor, the cell doesn't exactly blow the 360's processor away completely. In my opinion, the 360's superior GPU pretty much evens out the playing field for hardware. Besides, the PS3's real advantage is that it doesn't self destruct by overheating.

[Shadowblind]

Tsk, tsk, get over yourself Sony. Lets face it-- its been almost a year now. If you could produce better processing power then 360, you would have shown it.

However....the physics engine sounds mighty fine. Can't wait till they exploit it

[Emulation_Chief]

Hello:

Certainly, Sony creates the most powerful CPU ever. It is superior to the actual offering on PC. The main problem is, and it will be this way apparently, is the consumer target. These problems can also be mentioned for the PS2. Supposedly, the PlayStation 2's CPU is a Quad Processor, capable of working with 4 different instructions at once. 7 years passed and even the Sony games doesn't reach this potential.

It is interesting that a giant technology company a like Sony has one of the worst decision makers in the world. I'm not mentioning the Blu-Ray. Designing a CPU this powerful, as CELL is, the consumer target will be preferably more educational and industrial customers who requires processing power to solve very complex mathematics or encrypt or decrypt data for secure network transfer. Not games. A more enhanced version of their quad-cpu will be more than enough to push next-gen games to its limits. And it will keep the cost cheap for the manufacturing.

[tanukikun]

The real complication is in the issue with the Cell vs. the RSX. Many developers are currently letting the RSX do most of the heavy lifting as it is easier to currently write code for.

The Cell is a bit tougher to optimize code for right now. Whether this will change is difficult to say. Emulation_Chief is very correct in his point of the PS2's development path. Optimization of the PS2 never reached its fullest potential.(irregardless of the non-functional Hardware Anti-aliasing that plagues the PS2 from launch to this day...)

The 360 is a great console from a developer's standpoint at the moment as it is relatively easy to develop for and be able to get the most from every component in the system. This gives it a leg up on the PS3 by far. However, I seem to remember the original Xbox being touted as the superior hardware, only to be passed over by the PS2 in the long run. This was due to both titles and development conditions.

As for the current situation, I honestly don't think that either console is going to go away. They both have many advantages and disadvantage. The biggest winner in the long run will hopefully be the competitive market. (Personally, I'm getting kinda tired of paying $60US for games, though....)

[F9zDark]

Tsk, tsk, get over yourself Sony. Lets face it-- its been almost a year now. If you could produce better processing power then 360, you would have shown it.

However....the physics engine sounds mighty fine. Can't wait till they exploit it

They have with Folding@Home.

Sorry, but if the 360 even came close to processing power, Stanford University wouldn't be so hesitant to put Folding@Home on the 360.

And yes, scientist and computer engineers do know more than we do.