Actually, multiple slower CPUs is more efficient at dealing with multiple threads than one faster CPU witht he same number fo threads. This is due to various enginering reasons, some fairly complex in nature. In any case, it is a recognized fact.
However, the PS3 using Cell is in the same boat as the PS2, except “smarter” and much more massive. Honestly, the PS2 was only one CPU – the anemic MIPS 49K core – with two giant floating-point calculators. The vectors can run threads independantly from the main CPU, so it can technically be considered a multiprocessor setup.
The PS3 is much of the same thing, except much more massive but with a much more refined archtiecture in the Cell.
Yeah, PS2 developers should be writing multithreaded programs already. Everone should, it’s just the modern, sensible way of doing things. I hate email programs that can’t check for new messages in the background while I read one already in my inbox. Bang, multithreading. That’s why I mentioned BeOS. I’m sure the PS3 development tools will be very multithreading oriented. Hell, you could call running shaders on the Xbox GPU while running other code on the CPU multithreading if you want. Multithreaded game development is already here, the PS3 just aims to take it to the next level.
Wait until Moore’s law begins to seriously break down and then you’ll see a greater acceptance of multiprocessor systems and the requirements for multithreading.
You might be waiting for a very, very long time. Or not. Don’t ya just love prognostication? I’m betting on the long wait myself.
As far as multiprocessors, heck, my dual P3-500 was great for development because it could compile/debug on one CPU while it threw everything else onto the other one. I’ve never been able to mindlessly browse the web/read email on the same machine in the middle of a 50,000-LOC compilation before or since. Now I just have 8 machines and a KVM switch - cue Toccato, Adagio, and Fugue…
But most people aren’t doing that so such machines remain niche products. And my current setup is strictly out of the tinfoil helmet world.
To assume the dominance of the PS3 as a foegone conclusion is to fall victim of the same arrogance that has killed off many companies (3dfx anyone?). I doubt Sony is that naive.
"To assume the dominance of the PS3 as a foegone conclusion is to fall victim of the same arrogance that has killed off many companies (3dfx anyone?). "
Not saying the PS3 will rule all but using 3Dfx as a comparison is a poor one. 3dfx’s size, previous experience, the state of the industries at the time etc are far diffrent.
As for the PS3 release this year rumor posted on the front page of this site, would anyone be surprised if Sony put this out themselves in a cost-free attempt to slow down sales of their competitor’s products?
Hmm… I dunno. I guess on second thought it would also serve to damage sales of PS2s, so perhaps that conspiracy theory is not so well thought out.
"Before the PS1 Sony had little to no game experience, it’s not like they are industry veterans. "
They will have had dominance in the console arena for 2 generations. They are a far bigger and more experienced company than 3dfx ever was. 3Dfx even at their height were a dinky company in size and revenue compared to Sony. Sony was a succesful comapny before they got into consoles etc etc. I don’t see one thing that Sony has in common with 3dfx.
I am speaking about assuming that dominance always leads to continued dominance. They have to offer something more than previous success to dominate the next gen of consoles.
Right, they’re going to offer massive parallelism in their system design, better graphics, more “emotion”, nuclear missile control, etc. etc.
I mean c’mon DaveC…what are you saying here? You think they’re going to release the PS2 again or something? The system will be far more powerful than the last and no matter what Microsoft is feeding you guys up there at Bioware, it probably won’t be less powerful than anything either Microsoft or Nintendo are cooking up. So being number one, and with the likelihood of backwards compatibility with both PSOne and PS2, there’s once again an enormous built in audience just waiting to buy the next Playstation. They just don’t know it quite yet.
You can have any game console you want, as long as it’s crappy.
Speaking as a non-Microsoft-black-helicopter-tainted developer, I am very wary of yet another radically new and different architecture. I don’t get the feeling that Sony has learned from their mistakes with regards to developer friendliness and developer support.
And, actually, I really doubt that the PS3 will be backwards compatible. Or, if they are, it will be via software emulation, and not the hardware emulation in the PS2 – they’d be carrying WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much baggage around…
Eh? They put a single chip in the PS2 to support PSOne. They fabbed their own “emotion engine” specifically to do the same thing with PS2. It’ll be backwards compatible. Anyone not putting money on that is taking a big risk. If it’s not, then yeah, Sony will be pissing people off and they might have trouble in generation next. I think Sony sees the Playstation as their living room PC and by controlling the OS (essentially making everything backwards compatible all the time like Microsoft has done with Windows), they control the market.
Development difficulty, as much as I hate to say it, doesn’t mean a whole lot if you’re the market leader. They’re not having much trouble keeping people around with PS2 right now. Sure, US and Euro developers complain about it because they love the PC and the PC-centric Xbox. But they’re still not doing anything about it.
I think the telltale sign that Sony won’t have any trouble keeping devs around is Electronic Arts’ stance with Microsoft. They really seem to be doing a lot of stuff to keep from putting more money in MS pockets. I think they see MS as competition they can stop by backing their biggest competitor. EA doesn’t want to make Microsoft king and that’s a major problem for Microsoft right now.
And, actually, I really doubt that the PS3 will be backwards compatible. Or, if they are, it will be via software emulation, and not the hardware emulation in the PS2
The PS2’s PSX emulation was partially accomplished in software. The PS2 has the original CPU, but emulation of the GTE and MDEC were done in software on the Emotion Engine, at least that’s my understanding.
