Rigbizzle, is there no chance we'll see a powerful PS4 :-/?
I have no way of knowing. I'm getting criticized by kageMaru and maybe by brain_stew for my walls of text that they think lead no-where. From my point of view I am investigating possibles and citing what I find.
I think
Backward compatibility is a must in the PS4 and even though people were insisting the rumors pointed to no BC I didn't think that possible. This kept me from accepting 100% X-86 for the PS4 with no SPUs to make BC possible. I'd found the BSC cite earlier and assumed BSC would be writing parts of the OS for a Cell2 PS4. Turns out they are probably writing parts of the PS4 OS but the Cell emulation part. Rumors generally have truths in them but we may get it wrong.
By the way the APU in the PS4 chipset eliminates the need for Cell and that settles that issue, no 4 SPU or Cell from a refreshed PS3 is going into the PS4.
DieH@rd seconds the possibility/hope of some 3D stacking getting into a PS4. Looking at the APU and GPU in the PS4 rumored chipset cries out for some custom work on a common memory pool and
timing would allow for the possibility of 3D stacked memory as both a cheaper and faster alternative to GDDR5 which the APU can't use and the GPU must use. Since it looks like both Microsoft and Sony are using the same GPU they might co-operate in a redesign to use 3D stacked memory (Xbox next chipset name Oban = Japanese coin and the microsoft-sony domain name registration by Microsoft). I think both Sony and Microsoft want a killer next generation console but don't want to bankrupt themselves. If Sony and Microsoft are using the same CPU and GPUs then both will need emulation for BC....they can share the cost here also.
Powerful PS4.....right now people who know more than I are guessing 5X PS3 performance...with a common memory pool and 3D stacked memory you might get 40% more out of the chips which would be 7-8 times a PS3...who knows what else they can come up with, they might reach 10X the magic number.