PS4 already? man, how time flies.

Nobody is saying the PS4's release will mean the end of the PS3's lifespan. They did the same thing with every other PlayStation console after all.

Hmmm I figured that sony would not want to waste all the time and money that dev's have spent on figuring out the Cell.



I thought for sure they would just go with an updated cell with a higher clock speed and more spu's.



This way games could be backwards compatible and basically everything dev's learnt with PS3 could be used and built on with the PS4.



They just need to get rid of the crappy Nvidia GPU, that is all....

lets hope they can keep this one away from microsoft.

"are 3.2GHz a piece."



Don't think so Tim.

3.2 a piece and 360 games would be the most advanced technology to date (or at least most likely). It's 3.2Ghz total. From what I remember (could be wrong about this) PS3 has more processing power than the 360 it's just 360 split it into multiple CPU's while PS3 is all on one so it makes computing harder. (like I said, I could be wrong, I just remember a post from ages ago)

If Sony actually came out with a standard-design core(s) *now*/near-future, after years of promoting "The Power of the Cell" ...it would be kind of odd. Basically, an "eat their own words" moment. Personally, I'm convinced on the long-term power of the Cell (you don't see scientists and the Govt buying hundreds of 360's to pull together as a low-cost/high-performance server farm). It would be logical (and probably economical for Sony) if they went with a multi-core *Cell* chip. --Imagine 3 Cell CPU's (running at a slightly higher speed) with 7 SPU's *each*. That would be one Helluva' gaming console!

Most people here dont seem to understand how the CPU in either works.



Both the 360 and PS3 run the similar powerPC-esque cores. IBM-Toshiba-Sony created the Cell processor for the PS3 and its SPE architecture, then Microsoft approached IBM and asked for a multi-core processor for their system.

So a lot of the same design decisions and progress made from the Cell design went into the new Microsoft chip.



The original Cell development started in 2000, Microsoft approached IBM in 2003.



Cell isnt the way to go for gaming, though. By and large, to get the level of performance they get out of games like Uncharted, you basically need to write everything in assembly. Higher level code cant be done by the SPEs limited memory space.



PS3 is /fantastic/ for computations. Which is why they are used as super computers. Super Computers dont do anything but crunch numbers. They are just hugely sophisticated calculators. Which then churn out data to a seperate actual normal PC that then pieces it together and uses it.



tl;dr PS3 started dev in about 2000. Think about that.

Intel i7 anyone? That would be the best ever!

I don't really buy that Sony is looking for something else all together instead of using the cell. Sony should still use the cell technology but improve upon it such as adding more than 1 in the PS4 and bring back backwards compatibility. If they use the cell it would be easier for them to be backwards compatible for PS3 games and also not cost so much for research and development like it was for the PS3. Also with different programming techniques again, game developers might get frustrated like they did with programming for the cell to begin with but now developers could make a running start out of the gate if the cell was used this time around.

the i7 is only 2/3 of the power of the nehalem-ex although a laptop version is better suited for a console in my opinion but the i7's use low wattage , they have 4 cores with 8 threads and the most expensive configuration that runs at 64 watts is 1 grand wich is the i7 975 and the laptop i7's run cooler , lower energy usage a slight decrease in clock speed lol at least with the i7 965 mobile but if you were to get an i7 925 300$, oc it to 3.0 ghz = 3.0 ghz , quad core 8 threads , and abput 75 watts there lol so i dont know , the nehalem-ex is going to be a power monster eating 112 watts , lol but sure maybe the more lower end i7 , i dont want a ps4 costing me 1200$ because its the i7 975 lol

why open up with 10 yr lifespan or not* ?



Sony is going to make another console. It makes sense. The way they made the xmb have such a small about of resources basically castrated it. it takes WAY too damn long to load the xmb in game.



In game music should also be manditory by all devs.





On a side note i wish we could use the full power in other os. Then they could advertise the PS3 as being a POWER PC, BLU-RAY, DVD, PHOTOS, MUSIC, GAMES...

Don't they have to get the PS3 right, first?

If you know how to program for one cell processor you should for multiple since from what I heard a multi-core cell would just make all the process scale out to the rest of the cell processors which is how Gran Turismo did some crazy shit with multiple PS3s and how the government are so easily able to cluster compute with multiple PS3s or something like that.

Remember, Sony pulled out of Cell development years ago;



http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6182641.html



I doubt they would have done that if they had plans for using Cell in future consoles.