jeff_rigby
Banned
Energy Star EPA sponsored Voluntary compliance standards Three tiers starting with tier 1 2010
Notice the third tier of Game Console Energy Star specs went into effect July 1 2012. FCC filing for the PS3 4000 chassis July 2012.
There are EU power regulations for Always on Standby mode with exceptions for "special features". Standby is 500mw but special exceptions are allowed and I have not been able to find the power that is authorized. It applies to the PS4 and Xbox 720. The always on mode for the Xbox and PS4 is not required to be 500mw, read the exceptions and use cases. One has a game console able to turn on a Blu-ray player and control as well as play the blu-ray in the player; RVU should allow such a use case.
Joint power mode paper from all Game console makers.
Response to the above paper from EU energy conservation groups
EPA Publishes Voluntary Criteria for ENERGY STAR Game Consoles
One of the arguments for a total redesign of both PS3 and Xbox 360 was low power modes being mandated by California within about 18 months. Either it's done at this refresh @ 32nm or the next @ 22nm. I just discovered that the EPA energy Star Voluntary compliance third tier was schedule for July 1 2012 and the PS3 4000 chassis FCC listing also occurred July 2012. That makes this refresh more likely for a total redesign.
Stakeholders (game console manufacturers that are part of the Energy Star rating system) commented that earlier models may not meet performance requirements. This means there was a consensus arrived at for newer models and they all complied. Only if Sony is voluntarily a member "stakeholder" would this apply to the PS3 4000 chassis. There are only 3 game console platforms, we know WiiU should comply and the wording is plural. Sill doesn't confirm the PS3 4000 chassis but either PS3, Xbox 360 or both.
Tier 3 standards Game Console Energy Star Requirements
Auto power off
Standby power .5W
Active navigation menu 35W
Active streaming Media 45W
The PS3 3000 chassis consumes
Standby .5W
Active Navigation Menu 61 watts
Playing game 72-79 watts
Xbox 360S Valhalla
Standby
67 watts at the dashboard
80 watts while gaming.
Both Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 chassis would have to drop from about 60 watts to 35 watts for Active Navigation Menu. That is a dramatic drop that would require a total redesign with GPU Zero power (AMD's Zero power for GPU is 5 watts and only supported by a more modern GPU than in the Xbox 360S and for sure RSX) and a partial shutdown of some of the CPUs (Cell can't partially shutdown but individual 1PPU3SPU CPU packages could).
For the first time (Couldn't comply with second tier and were exempted " game consoles brought to market prior to January 1, 2011 are excluded from the scope of the performance requirements") we might see the PS3 4000 chassis comply with Energy Star for game consoles. Since we are going to see the Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 chassis sold to casual gamers and XTV-IPTV users, Energy Star would be a sales necessity or rather not being Energy Star rated when WiiU complies would be a serious disadvantage.
For the Xbox 361 I believe coming this season, HDMI pass-thru already implies power modes but those multi-media "Set Top Box" power modes were exempted by request from stakeholders; reasoning was the multiple features made a "standard" for power draw too difficult to calculate. With hardware that can comply with Energy Star Tier 3 low power modes it should also be possible to support low power modes for HDMI pass-thru.
The 16 gig SSD Flash drive in the PS3 4000 chassis and rumored in the PS4 is too large for a special place for patches.
The above is another point, both PS4 and PS3 4000 chassis have 16 gig SSD memory which is mentioned as part of AMDs building blocks to be included in SoCs. This would be necessasary as mentioned above to comply with Energy Star power modes, the OS would have to manage this turning on and off the hard disk as needed. And in addition in Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 it can be used as a small SSD Disk Drive. In the PS4 and Xbox 720 (see powerpoint link below) I suspect both will be background serving to handhelds and would require more SSD memory for that feature eliminating the use of the SSD drive as a user Drive like in the PS3 4000 chassis. There are security advantages to a SSD flash inside a SoC. It would not require encryption which in turn allows for a faster OS in addition to the already faster SSD drive/cache.
For Reference, SSD Versus HDD: Power And Performance
SSD Vs. Hard Disk 2 watts vs 6 watts Edit: Misleading as it's for a 3.5 inch drive. Smaller 2.5 inch laptop drives with slower transfer speeds average 2 watts or less. I can't find any figures for larger 500 gig drives with faster transfer speeds when active, it's always average. SSD specs are idle .08 watts for the best and 4 watts @ 520 mb/sec. At slower transfer speeds they should use less and average power considering they will be active for 1/5th the time should be half or less of a Hard Disk, if very active like when decoding/encoding a video stream with limited memory much less for SSD.
There are a number of reasons for SSD drives but I don't think costs factor into the choices just as apparently power is not as much of a factor either. 130 gig 2.5 inch drives are $35.00 and a stand alone SSD 16 gig drive has many of the same overheads but less value for the consumer. A encrypted serial Flash memory module can be attached to a ePCI buss cheaper than a SSD drive and perform faster. Faster means less average active power draw, faster boot, faster memory swaps and a simpler OS. If it's attached to the motherboard and there is a letter from Sony stating all motherboards are identical then these advantages are probably seen in all PS3 4000 chassis models even if they have a Hard Disk. 1+ watts saved at an active menu and a snappier OS. Edit: 1.5 watts saved per hour in having a Hard Disk sleep adds up over a year so long term this can be significant.
1) microsoft-sony.com
2) digitimes PS4 rumor (Must be a PS3 that was confused with a PS4)
3) Leaked Xbox 720 powerpoint document from 9/2010 which has the Xbox 361 coming this 2012 season. IF Oban 12/2011 then 9/2010 was after it was in the pipeline to be produced.
4) This patent and the timing in both filing and publishing XTV game support.
5) Both ps3 and Xbox 360 refresh must have a price reduction built in to allow a price reduction when the PS4 and Xbox 720 are released. This is already possible for the Xbox 360 but the PS3 would NEED a massive redesign to put both CPU and GPU on the same silicon.
6) Sony 2010 1PPU4SPU patent
7) Elizabeth Gerhard's Projects (IBM employee) and an International project involving the Xbox 360 @ 32nm and NO design work for a PS3 refresh at 32nm
8) Oban = large blank Japanese Coin => Is Oban for both the PS3 and Xbox 361 (Microsoft making the chip for Sony using 1PPU3SPU CPU packages instead of just PPUs )
9) Both having browsers at the same time for the first time ever and both have a refresh at the same time for the first time ever
10) Sony depth camera patent (Timing, 9/2011 & again 2/2012)
11) Khronos Openmax 1.2 (Supports Gstreamer-openmax and camera, second Khronos Pdf mentioning Augmented Reality starting Sept 2012 leveraging the browser libraries
12) ATSC 2.0 *-* starts May 2012 thru 1st quarter 2013. *-* h.265 published for use Jan 2013. *-* Sony Nasne *-* RVU support for the PS3 announced by Verizon and Direct TV
13) Energy Star third tier game console voluntary requirements
14) Information on Next generation game console technology
Edit: 11/2012 The PS3 4K chassis does not use the SSD flash as expected above and is not a total redesign as I speculated. This leaves the next 22nm refresh (if it happens) and that should be before the California law goes into effect. I should have taken the Linkedin #7 above more seriously as it has PS3 work at 22nm skipping 32/28nm as also mentioned in a article "Sony skipping 32nm for Cell".
Notice the third tier of Game Console Energy Star specs went into effect July 1 2012. FCC filing for the PS3 4000 chassis July 2012.
There are EU power regulations for Always on Standby mode with exceptions for "special features". Standby is 500mw but special exceptions are allowed and I have not been able to find the power that is authorized. It applies to the PS4 and Xbox 720. The always on mode for the Xbox and PS4 is not required to be 500mw, read the exceptions and use cases. One has a game console able to turn on a Blu-ray player and control as well as play the blu-ray in the player; RVU should allow such a use case.
Joint power mode paper from all Game console makers.
Response to the above paper from EU energy conservation groups
EPA Publishes Voluntary Criteria for ENERGY STAR Game Consoles
One of the arguments for a total redesign of both PS3 and Xbox 360 was low power modes being mandated by California within about 18 months. Either it's done at this refresh @ 32nm or the next @ 22nm. I just discovered that the EPA energy Star Voluntary compliance third tier was schedule for July 1 2012 and the PS3 4000 chassis FCC listing also occurred July 2012. That makes this refresh more likely for a total redesign.
Scope Revision
• Stakeholders commented that earlier models may not meet performance requirements
• EPA proposes that game consoles brought to market prior to January 1, 2011 are excluded from the scope of the performance requirements
Stakeholders (game console manufacturers that are part of the Energy Star rating system) commented that earlier models may not meet performance requirements. This means there was a consensus arrived at for newer models and they all complied. Only if Sony is voluntarily a member "stakeholder" would this apply to the PS3 4000 chassis. There are only 3 game console platforms, we know WiiU should comply and the wording is plural. Sill doesn't confirm the PS3 4000 chassis but either PS3, Xbox 360 or both.
Tier 3 standards Game Console Energy Star Requirements
Auto power off
Standby power .5W
Active navigation menu 35W
Active streaming Media 45W
The PS3 3000 chassis consumes
Standby .5W
Active Navigation Menu 61 watts
Playing game 72-79 watts
Xbox 360S Valhalla
Standby
67 watts at the dashboard
80 watts while gaming.
Both Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 chassis would have to drop from about 60 watts to 35 watts for Active Navigation Menu. That is a dramatic drop that would require a total redesign with GPU Zero power (AMD's Zero power for GPU is 5 watts and only supported by a more modern GPU than in the Xbox 360S and for sure RSX) and a partial shutdown of some of the CPUs (Cell can't partially shutdown but individual 1PPU3SPU CPU packages could).
For the first time (Couldn't comply with second tier and were exempted " game consoles brought to market prior to January 1, 2011 are excluded from the scope of the performance requirements") we might see the PS3 4000 chassis comply with Energy Star for game consoles. Since we are going to see the Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 chassis sold to casual gamers and XTV-IPTV users, Energy Star would be a sales necessity or rather not being Energy Star rated when WiiU complies would be a serious disadvantage.
For the Xbox 361 I believe coming this season, HDMI pass-thru already implies power modes but those multi-media "Set Top Box" power modes were exempted by request from stakeholders; reasoning was the multiple features made a "standard" for power draw too difficult to calculate. With hardware that can comply with Energy Star Tier 3 low power modes it should also be possible to support low power modes for HDMI pass-thru.
The 16 gig SSD Flash drive in the PS3 4000 chassis and rumored in the PS4 is too large for a special place for patches.
I suspect that it's used as a cache for the OS and background tasks to allow the Hard Disk to sleep reducing power during; "Active navigation menu 35W".http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38657020&postcount=1 said:In total, during the launch two PlayStation 4 are available, both are only equipped with a hard drive larger than 320GB. In terms of bundles, there are no concrete plans at Sony. What the exact difference between the two we do not know, but this is probably just the hard drive size. Also, the PS4 will have a special place for patches, OS etc. this is stored on an internal 16 GB of flash storage. just a "special place for patches".
http://eda360insider.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/3d-week-driven-by-economics-its-now-one-minute-to-3d/ said:According to the data gleaned from presentations by Samsung, Toshiba, AMD, and others, 3D IC assembly gives you the equivalent performance boost of 2 IC generations (assuming Dennard scaling wasn’t dead). Garrou then quoted AMD’s CTO Byran Black, who spoke at the Global Interposer Technology 2011 Workshop last month. AMD has been working on 3D IC assembly for more than five years but has intentionally not been talking about it. AMD’s 22nm Southbridge chips will probably be the last ones to be “impacted by scaling” said Black. AMD’s future belongs to partitioning of functions among chips that are process-optimized for the function (CPU, Cache, DRAM, GPU, analog, SSD) and then assembled as 3D or 2.5D stacks.
The above is another point, both PS4 and PS3 4000 chassis have 16 gig SSD memory which is mentioned as part of AMDs building blocks to be included in SoCs. This would be necessasary as mentioned above to comply with Energy Star power modes, the OS would have to manage this turning on and off the hard disk as needed. And in addition in Xbox 361 and PS3 4000 it can be used as a small SSD Disk Drive. In the PS4 and Xbox 720 (see powerpoint link below) I suspect both will be background serving to handhelds and would require more SSD memory for that feature eliminating the use of the SSD drive as a user Drive like in the PS3 4000 chassis. There are security advantages to a SSD flash inside a SoC. It would not require encryption which in turn allows for a faster OS in addition to the already faster SSD drive/cache.
For Reference, SSD Versus HDD: Power And Performance
SSD Vs. Hard Disk 2 watts vs 6 watts Edit: Misleading as it's for a 3.5 inch drive. Smaller 2.5 inch laptop drives with slower transfer speeds average 2 watts or less. I can't find any figures for larger 500 gig drives with faster transfer speeds when active, it's always average. SSD specs are idle .08 watts for the best and 4 watts @ 520 mb/sec. At slower transfer speeds they should use less and average power considering they will be active for 1/5th the time should be half or less of a Hard Disk, if very active like when decoding/encoding a video stream with limited memory much less for SSD.
There are a number of reasons for SSD drives but I don't think costs factor into the choices just as apparently power is not as much of a factor either. 130 gig 2.5 inch drives are $35.00 and a stand alone SSD 16 gig drive has many of the same overheads but less value for the consumer. A encrypted serial Flash memory module can be attached to a ePCI buss cheaper than a SSD drive and perform faster. Faster means less average active power draw, faster boot, faster memory swaps and a simpler OS. If it's attached to the motherboard and there is a letter from Sony stating all motherboards are identical then these advantages are probably seen in all PS3 4000 chassis models even if they have a Hard Disk. 1+ watts saved at an active menu and a snappier OS. Edit: 1.5 watts saved per hour in having a Hard Disk sleep adds up over a year so long term this can be significant.
1) microsoft-sony.com
2) digitimes PS4 rumor (Must be a PS3 that was confused with a PS4)
3) Leaked Xbox 720 powerpoint document from 9/2010 which has the Xbox 361 coming this 2012 season. IF Oban 12/2011 then 9/2010 was after it was in the pipeline to be produced.
4) This patent and the timing in both filing and publishing XTV game support.
5) Both ps3 and Xbox 360 refresh must have a price reduction built in to allow a price reduction when the PS4 and Xbox 720 are released. This is already possible for the Xbox 360 but the PS3 would NEED a massive redesign to put both CPU and GPU on the same silicon.
6) Sony 2010 1PPU4SPU patent
7) Elizabeth Gerhard's Projects (IBM employee) and an International project involving the Xbox 360 @ 32nm and NO design work for a PS3 refresh at 32nm
8) Oban = large blank Japanese Coin => Is Oban for both the PS3 and Xbox 361 (Microsoft making the chip for Sony using 1PPU3SPU CPU packages instead of just PPUs )
9) Both having browsers at the same time for the first time ever and both have a refresh at the same time for the first time ever
10) Sony depth camera patent (Timing, 9/2011 & again 2/2012)
11) Khronos Openmax 1.2 (Supports Gstreamer-openmax and camera, second Khronos Pdf mentioning Augmented Reality starting Sept 2012 leveraging the browser libraries
12) ATSC 2.0 *-* starts May 2012 thru 1st quarter 2013. *-* h.265 published for use Jan 2013. *-* Sony Nasne *-* RVU support for the PS3 announced by Verizon and Direct TV
13) Energy Star third tier game console voluntary requirements
14) Information on Next generation game console technology
Edit: 11/2012 The PS3 4K chassis does not use the SSD flash as expected above and is not a total redesign as I speculated. This leaves the next 22nm refresh (if it happens) and that should be before the California law goes into effect. I should have taken the Linkedin #7 above more seriously as it has PS3 work at 22nm skipping 32/28nm as also mentioned in a article "Sony skipping 32nm for Cell".