Update 2 : A best shot at the relevant bits, a summary:
Bits probably relevant to PS4
- 'the company is working on a system-on-chip (SoC) to underpin the product for "seven to 10 years".'
- 'He describes the architecture in broad terms: "You are talking about powerful CPU and GPU with extra DSP and programmable logic."' (Alternative quote in another article: ' “We are looking at an architecture where the bulk of processing will still sit on the main board, with CPU and graphics added to by more digital signal processing and some configurable logic.”
- 'Tsuruta-san picked out emerging ‘through silicon via’ designs. These stack chips with interconnects running vertically through them to reduce length, raise performance and reduce power consumption.'
- 'Tsuruta-san has noted the difficulties in achieving viable yields at 28nm, though he believes that these problems are now moving towards a resolution.'
- Tsuruta: "We are confident that we can now see a way and that we can use some of these advanced methods to create a new kind of system-on-chip. We think that there are the technologies today that can be taken to this project.”
- Tsuruta: "We understand that for this, we will need to offer a very strong SDK. We will retain our own OS for the main games and support that with a development environment that is viable. For online and other features, we are also thinking of a simpler approach to a Linux-type environment than on the PlayStation 3,"
- Seems to be a consciousness to try and accommodate potential future peripherals with high bandwidth needs
- '[Vita] features a nine-axis accelerometer (3 accelerometers, 3 gyroscopes and 3 magnetometers), but we could soon see a tenth added to sense pressure and increase environmental feedback still further.'
Bits probably relevant to post-PS4 (peripherals, PS5+ etc.)
- 'For the future of AR, Tsuruta’s presentation imagined a 3D version using lightweight glasses to create a hybrid gaming environment '
- 'the company wants to up the ante in haptics technology...this vision is one that incorporates sufficient touch sensitivity to, say, reproduce the full tactile sensation of stroking a cat'
- 'controllers that incorporate more motion-sensing accelerometers, and even vital signs sensors. There’s even been talk of systems that read players’ eye movements.'
- 'Sony’s target is to get latency for a typical playing experience to below 50ms for framerates of more than 300fps.'
- 'Moreover, the target is not for 1080p resolution, but reflect a drive towards 8kx4k.'
Unless otherwise explicitly noted, the above quotes are from the article. Direct quotes from Tsuruta are hopefully obvious to pick out.
Update: More relevant comments from him in this post.
I posted a much shorter article about this a while ago that went down like a lead balloon, but with all this talk lately of PS4, and with a couple of far more detailed articles appearing on this in the last week, I think it's worth posting about again
The first article is just a summary one of a presentation given by SCE's Chief Tech Officer in December, the second taken from an interview with him.
WARNING: The stuff talked about here is rather explicitly not necessarily a feature list for PS4. He notes that some of this stuff is at least 5 years away from fruition. It's just his current take on where things may be heading longer term. Some of the more out there stuff could be relevant within PS4's lifetime in a peripheral sense, though...
Article: http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2011/dec/sony-gaming.cfm
Interview: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/maasaki-tsu-interview.cfm
(Note: it's believed the next Power architecture will be a stacked design. This is also the architecture that has been speculated could incorporate aspects of Cell's design, or a next-gen SPU...). It's due in 2013.
Pretty much exactly what I was thinking about as soon as they showed that prototype at CES a couple of years ago.
On to the interview...actually part interview, part speculation piece by the author:
Article: http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2011/dec/sony-gaming.cfm
Interview: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/maasaki-tsu-interview.cfm
I feel like the spirit of Kutaragi is alive and well at SCE
And this could be the closest you'll get to Sony talking about 'PS4' for a while...
Bits probably relevant to PS4
- 'the company is working on a system-on-chip (SoC) to underpin the product for "seven to 10 years".'
- 'He describes the architecture in broad terms: "You are talking about powerful CPU and GPU with extra DSP and programmable logic."' (Alternative quote in another article: ' “We are looking at an architecture where the bulk of processing will still sit on the main board, with CPU and graphics added to by more digital signal processing and some configurable logic.”
- 'Tsuruta-san picked out emerging ‘through silicon via’ designs. These stack chips with interconnects running vertically through them to reduce length, raise performance and reduce power consumption.'
- 'Tsuruta-san has noted the difficulties in achieving viable yields at 28nm, though he believes that these problems are now moving towards a resolution.'
- Tsuruta: "We are confident that we can now see a way and that we can use some of these advanced methods to create a new kind of system-on-chip. We think that there are the technologies today that can be taken to this project.”
- Tsuruta: "We understand that for this, we will need to offer a very strong SDK. We will retain our own OS for the main games and support that with a development environment that is viable. For online and other features, we are also thinking of a simpler approach to a Linux-type environment than on the PlayStation 3,"
- Seems to be a consciousness to try and accommodate potential future peripherals with high bandwidth needs
- '[Vita] features a nine-axis accelerometer (3 accelerometers, 3 gyroscopes and 3 magnetometers), but we could soon see a tenth added to sense pressure and increase environmental feedback still further.'
Bits probably relevant to post-PS4 (peripherals, PS5+ etc.)
- 'For the future of AR, Tsuruta’s presentation imagined a 3D version using lightweight glasses to create a hybrid gaming environment '
- 'the company wants to up the ante in haptics technology...this vision is one that incorporates sufficient touch sensitivity to, say, reproduce the full tactile sensation of stroking a cat'
- 'controllers that incorporate more motion-sensing accelerometers, and even vital signs sensors. There’s even been talk of systems that read players’ eye movements.'
- 'Sony’s target is to get latency for a typical playing experience to below 50ms for framerates of more than 300fps.'
- 'Moreover, the target is not for 1080p resolution, but reflect a drive towards 8kx4k.'
Unless otherwise explicitly noted, the above quotes are from the article. Direct quotes from Tsuruta are hopefully obvious to pick out.
Update: More relevant comments from him in this post.
I posted a much shorter article about this a while ago that went down like a lead balloon, but with all this talk lately of PS4, and with a couple of far more detailed articles appearing on this in the last week, I think it's worth posting about again
The first article is just a summary one of a presentation given by SCE's Chief Tech Officer in December, the second taken from an interview with him.
WARNING: The stuff talked about here is rather explicitly not necessarily a feature list for PS4. He notes that some of this stuff is at least 5 years away from fruition. It's just his current take on where things may be heading longer term. Some of the more out there stuff could be relevant within PS4's lifetime in a peripheral sense, though...
Article: http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2011/dec/sony-gaming.cfm
Interview: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/maasaki-tsu-interview.cfm
(Note: it's believed the next Power architecture will be a stacked design. This is also the architecture that has been speculated could incorporate aspects of Cell's design, or a next-gen SPU...). It's due in 2013.
Pretty much exactly what I was thinking about as soon as they showed that prototype at CES a couple of years ago.
On to the interview...actually part interview, part speculation piece by the author:
Article: http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2011/dec/sony-gaming.cfm
Interview: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/maasaki-tsu-interview.cfm
I feel like the spirit of Kutaragi is alive and well at SCE
And this could be the closest you'll get to Sony talking about 'PS4' for a while...
