rec.autos.simulators

From a siliconvalley.com news story:

"With the PS3, Sony will apparently put 72 processors on a single chip:
eight PowerPC microprocessors, each of which controls eight auxiliary
processors.

"Using sophisticated software to manage the workload, the PowerPC processors
will divide complicated problems into smaller tasks and tap as many of the
auxiliary processors as necessary to tackle them.

"...Sony and its partners believe that if they can coordinate those
processors at maximum efficiency, the PS3 will be able to process a trillion
math operations per second -- the equivalent of 100 Intel Pentium 4 chips
and 1,000 times faster than processing power of the PS2."

Or abt. 500 times faster than the Xbox.

In a word no.

Microsoft has had an Xbox 2 ready to go for sometime now just waiting to see
what Sony comes up with next. They may adjust it a little after seeing the
PS3, but they are far from dead.

MadDAWG

On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 13:34:52 GMT, "Steve Smith"

Damn, and 4 times more time to program it :(

Sebastien TIXIER - Game Developer
Dynamics and Car Physics
http://www.eden-studios.fr
GPLRank Normal:-44.24   Monster:-124.44
LFS GTI Online          1:30:62
LFS GTI Offline (HLVC)  1:31:14

Either my calendar is slow or it really isn't April 1 yet...

--
__________________________
Todd Walker
http://twalker.d2g.com
__________________________

Massively parallel computers have been around for a long time in industry,
mostly they are used for CAE and CFD type things.  The software complexity
is handled by writing compilers which are intelligent enough to parallelize
things behind the scenes, transparently to the programmer.  If Sony will
step up to providing an adequate SDK with a compiler that can parallelize
things like sound and video processing for you, it shouldn't be a problem.

As a game developer on PS2, i have to say that Sony dont have adequate
SDK.

PS2 is not "massively" parralel, but have a  5 processors :

-CPU            floating point op,etc..
-GS                    Graphic Synthetiseur
-VU0                  Vector Unit 0
-VU1                  Vector Unit 1 ( directly connected to GS )
-IOP                   In/Out Processor ( sound, devices , dvdrom )

everything connected with a 300mgzhz 128bit DMA .

If Sony doesn't change its politics with game developer, the PS3 will
be very difficult to program. The PS2 ISalready difficult to program
compare to a XBOX or a GameCube.

Sebastien TIXIER - Game Developer
Dynamics and Car Physics
http://www.eden-studios.fr
GPLRank Normal:-44.24   Monster:-124.44
LFS GTI Online          1:30:62
LFS GTI Offline (HLVC)  1:31:14

On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 13:34:52 GMT, "Steve Smith"

How does it stack up to the Xbox 2.  Last I heard, the X2 was due out
in 2005, the PS3 and successor to the GC in 2006.  Could have changed
of course (I love ridiculously far off planned release dates).

Is Sony planning on adding a harddrive or do they want to assrape us
for $25 8mb memory sticks again?

Jason

WOW! Can I add a keyboard so I can run Wordperfect 4.2 for DOS?

My sources say MS wants the Xbox Next (i.e., Lite, w/o a HD, with a lower
price point) in stores before Xmas.  That would tend to indicate both the
PS3 and the Xbox 2 (Internet Appliance/Set-Top Convergence Duz-All) will
roll out before Xmas '04.  Exciting times, huh?

XBOX Lite is not XBOX Next, 2 different things all together.  Xbox Lite is
just a stripped down version of the current XBOX.
Most say PS3 XBOX2 is sometime 2005-2006.

Hopefully it was clear that I meant the "massively parallel" comment in
regards to PS3, not PS2.  And if the complexity goes up that much I don't
see how they will have any choice but to step up to doing a better SDK.
Besides, Sony's SDK isn't really the only choice is it?  On PS2 I believe
you can use Renderware instead.  So if Sony won't step up to the plate maybe
somebody else will.

1. they still arn't sure if they can do it and 2. Programing will be a gut
ache and i dought many programmers will take the time. 3. with all that
proccessing power how big will the games be and on what type of cd will it
come and 4. i have also heard that the p3 is no longer looking at being a
concole machine, its being developed simular to a settop box that will
handle every need of the home.

On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 20:00:22 GMT, "Steve Smith"

Damn.

The other thing I'm wondering is how much a machine with 72 RISC chips
is going to cost.  Even if they sell at half or one third of the cost
to build, that's got to be like $3k to 4k at least...  Not to mention
the cooling requirements, the mainframe-sized case, etc.  Sounds like
a killer machine if what they're proposing is true, but just looking
at how much similar RISC solutions (well as close as we can get, like
a fully loaded Sunfire) cost, I dunno.

Jason

I understood that, i just wanted to tell that the PS2 is alread a
parallel machine.

Renderware .. :)  Rednerware is a great tool, but it cant compete with
a 3D engine developed internaly. Look at GTA3, its a shame the frame
rate often slow down to 15fps.

Sebastien TIXIER - Game Developer
Dynamics and Car Physics
http://www.eden-studios.fr
GPLRank Normal:-44.24   Monster:-124.44
LFS GTI Online          1:30:62
LFS GTI Offline (HLVC)  1:31:14

'k - I admit it: I edited out a comment from Epic Games saying that
programming for the PS3 looks to be a LOT more difficult.