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Denver, 5:12 AM
Wed Nov 25
53 posts in the last 24 hours
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01:54 AM
It was supposed to be a wondrous magical processor to power all sorts of devices. What happened to that?
Oh right, Intel
11/24/09
11/23/09
In fact, it's almost a certainty that - while the IBM guy says the opposite - the rumour that the Cell-line of processors is dead is actually true after all. And IBM assisted the nazis by programs to catalogue the jews in concntration camps during ww2.
Turning to more practical matters, the Cell-processor is at once good for calculating particular game-type calculations like vectors and transformations. But nevertheless also not good for game-things, just Folding@home and other "super-computer stuff".
And in any case, Ati will create a gpu that will blow any lots-of-cores Cell design out of the water anyway. This is mathematically proven in some way that has to do with prescience (which you can't spell without science, apparently).
Incidentally, the Cell-processor was a way for Sony to "get into CPU-business". This is of course the same sorry attempt as the blu-ray debacle, where - if it was not for more storage space and therefore better definition, vastly improved spot-reads, and optional device-protection measures and zones - we would still be using DVD. As it was meant to be.
Regardless - IBM does not see the Cell as part of their future. This is the important part that we shall take away from all of this.. even though no one has actually said that.
11/23/09
Core Cell designs and the work done throughout the R&D will not go to waste. But that's pointing out the obvious I suppose.
Also, we really don't know if Sony won't use an evolution of the design (lots of room for that). IBM will happily partner with them again if Sony wishes. Can't say no to money and it would make the transition to the next gen much smoother. Difference is, they won't stick with an afterthought of a GPU.
After all that investment that SCEI did with the thing, it's hard to imagine them not using a portion of it in the next generation. This isn't comparable to the EE design as the investment was magnitudes larger.
Not sure why you're bringing up ATI here considering that this is a CPU matter. Intel or AMD will of course create something revolutionary that blows Cell.
Lastly, BD was and still is a joint tech. Sony may have been the face of PR and started the early designs, but BD is as much as theirs as it is Panasonic's and many other CE companies on the BDA.
Sony, after all, was a co-developer of other successful mass formats like DVD and CD. It's no different than that.
PS. Not sure why would anyone "worry" about the future of the PS3 with the initial news. Just because IBM halted future designs of the tech, it doesn't mean that current designs will be affected.
11/23/09
..except they haven't halted "the designs", but one particular design internally.
But like I explained - none of this matters. I've read it in a bunch of comments that it doesn't.
#speakup
11/23/09
Right, singular as in "design".
#speakup
11/23/09
Specifically: not "the Cell" design. That is what it says, you see..?
Also, sarcasm is definitively dead.
11/24/09
11/24/09
Yeah. It's not called creative interpretation any more, it's called correct grammar (as I see it). Also true.
11/24/09
Sarcasm isn't dead, it's just gotten advanced enough that it's hard to detect online.
Anyway, not sure where this went, but I merely meant future developments of the chipset internally. That's all.
#speakup
11/23/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
That's not to say one with a single PowerPC and 16SPEs, or two PowerPCs with 16SPEs or one with... well, the possible permutations are endless.
We won't know until IBM says something about it.
11/23/09
Try saying that 5 times fast.
11/23/09
11/23/09
Didn't say they we're going to stop making them. Especially when thy have a potential contract for another 50million of them for Sony, a fair ton from Toshiba n specialist PCI makers, and the server/supercomputer folks. And the next Playstation to think about.
Still, kinda lame the PS4 won't have a 34-core SPU. Then again, I guess it just means more developers griping for the good old days Octo-core processors.
Looks like PS5 will be relying on regular old boring Quantum Processor.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
Errm, good sir, yes you with a Star, please click the tick next to this fellows comment.
11/23/09
As long as you have the bandwidth to support streaming HD, then you can have as high a graphics as comps in 20 years time will kick out. Its all done on their end, you just get the video.
11/23/09
1080p requires a throughput of around 1.5gbits to support 30fps at full color. Your average American Internet connection is ~3mbits in 2009 and it hasn't increased by much over the decades.
3mbits will get you PS2 level SD graphics and the way computing power is scaling it's easy to imagine Google or Facebook having PS2 level computing power for each of it's clients in 20 years. PS3 power? not sure, moores law say maybe but I know for sure there isn't enough bandwidth to get 1080p or even 720p to a consumer in the same time frame.
11/23/09
There's enough computing power right now. All we lack is the bandwidth. That's the thing people scoffed at on Onlives claims. We know they can do the 720p output piss easy, its the internet that was the issue.
And if in 20 years(heck, in 5 years) US internet is still lagging behind I doubt the rest of the world will of sat on their thumbs with their latest innovations n such. US really needs to pull its thumb out for their net speed, some of the slowest in the developed world.
11/23/09
With FiOps as the standard network, it is absolutely possible to be able to stream video at a consistent 60fps and send and recieve instructions with no noticeable input lag. Hell, with the best home connections now, it's relatively possible in limited areas.
The only issue right now is not the amount of bandwidth available to the customer but the amount of customers that can avail of that bandwidth. The infrastructure across the world has got to improve and develop in many areas and with our ever increasing reliance on networks and the internet, that infrastructure should be well in place in 20 years time.
There's a reason things like the Phantom and OnLive have been popping up. Cloud computing is the future, whether we like it or not.
11/23/09
The ISPs aren't into improving it much. It will take an act of congress to get them into gear. Fiber has been around for ages but no one has given us true high speed networks a la Korea/Japan. You may have a fiber connection that can kick 50mbits but you pay through the nose and the English Internet is bottle necked at far far lower so you get maybe 20mbit downloads tops from your 50mbit fiber connection.
Bandwidth grows much slower than computing power. There may be lots of juice in the cloud 20 years from now BUT the bandwidth will not grow in the same way.
in 2008 the average US bandwidth 1.98 mbits. in 2009 is was 2.5mbits. at that percentage rate of growth in 20 years you'll have 63 mbit Internet as an average. Projecting this is hard because you have these huge companies fighting tooth and nail to charge you as much as possible for as little as possible.
11/23/09
@kingmanic: I pay £16($26, though including VAT) for 10Mb/s.
This is the slowest speed my ISP offers.
And as you can see, it hits that 10Mb/s
Which for that price US offers you 3Mb/s, don't even get into Fios. And we have some of the slowest net in Europe.
So yeah, if you guys need government intervention, do it. Some of the comment I've seen about on here the past month or so about "well its capitalism, they are meant to make money" regarding paying through the nose for shit, really makes you realise why US fell back so much the past decade or so. Kind of a shame really. I'm not meant to be getting similar ping to US folks when I'm playing on a server an ocean away.
US having slow shitty restrictive net can hamper some major technology breakthroughs, especially cloud computing. So it could really do with catching up. It's a major market, and could hamper the rest of the worlds development. Though as I said after a few years if it doesn't improve, then the rest of the world will just leave you guys behind.
11/23/09
11/23/09
Oh well, may as well chip away at Sony's resolve.
11/23/09
11/23/09
..
Did you see what I did there?
DID YOU SEE IT!?
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
#speakup
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
....shut up
01/28/09
01/28/09
I played Math Blaster on Windows 3.1
133 Mhz processor
100 MB harddrive
(I think I'm remembering this correctly it was around 15 years ago)
01/28/09
01/28/09
01/28/09
01/28/09
Has there been a time when 1 company made the guts of every home console? I don't remember one before now.
01/28/09
As for the question no idea though you gotta remember IBM weren't SOLELY responsible for all three. They only contributed as part of a team to the Cell.
12/30/08
12/30/08