Mark Cerny is leading the design on Sony’s PlayStation 4 and he’s an incredibly smart guy. He’s given an interview to TechOn in which he goes into a little more detail about the PS4’s architecture and why it’s not quite as simple as just throwing some decent PC parts in a fancy case.
The PS4 is built around a PC architecture but that’s not the whole story. While they avoided anything that presented developers with problems to solve, Cerny says they “certainly employed our own distinguished technologies for the PS4.”
So, in the example given, they avoided eDRAM on the chip so as to avoid making developers choose which data needs to be shunted to which kind of memory. That’s one less decision to make during programming and it’s one less “puzzle” to solve.
The PS4 design team are “claiming that our company is leading innovations” though, so they’re certainly not just throwing bigger numbers at the problems and hoping to come out on top – there’s some proprietary parts involved in eking out the most from the hardware.
In the examples Cerny mentions, and he’s very technically minded so it’s not always easy for the less gifted among us to follow, he mentions structures which handle the processes between CPU and GPU. Mostly, they make decisions about what data to prioritise over multiple layers, how to reduce the number of times that needs to be sent back and forth, how quickly it is handled and when the CPU should take over from the GPU.
While much of this is over my head, and all of it is irrelevant until we see and play the differences it makes in games, it’s very encouraging to hear that Sony is focussed on two things. First, fostering innovation at the very base of their technical advancement and, second, making things as simple as possible for developers.
3shirts
This is all good news. All the problems in the early days of PS3 (and some would say right through its life) were the complexity of developing on it. I am very positive about the attitude they are taking this time.
Sheepdip
That’s a Microsoft created myth. There is nothing complicated developing for PS3 (PS3 is actually CONSIDERABLY easier to code for than the PS2 was).
The problems come when trying to code a single game the proper and modern PS3 way, AND the traditional 1980’s way the Xbox used.
jimmy-google
It looks more and more like Sony put the right person in charge of PS4 design.
bunimomike
I read a fascinating dissection of the spec a few weeks ago. It was just about easy enough for my non-hardware-geek head to manage and explained many of the things above. The enormous speed of the GDDR5 memory. The GPU and CPU being on the same die means all manner of good things. However, the big thing really is the 8GB of RAM. This will really help the developers down the line when the life-cycle is getting on a bit.
ron_mcphatty
Any chance you could link us up to that dissection article? Those sorts of pieces that are interesting as well as understandable are hard to come by!
bunimomike
Been looking for the damn thing as I wanted to directly quote it but no such luck yet. Might ask a couple of the lads here as I linked to it not long ago and they might still have it. If so, I’ll pop it in the forum. ;-)
ron_mcphatty
Cracking, thanks! If looking for it becomes a pain in the arse then don’t worry :)
Sheepdip
You can’t apply PC theory to the PS4 any more than you can apply it to PS3 or any other Playstation console, their strengths are that they AREN’T a PC….
cam the man
The PS4 is a closed system so developers can take full advantage of the hardware and don’t have to worry about different revisions of drivers, hardware and even OS versions.
I read a interview (CVG.com) from an Epic Games exec who compared the PlayStation 4 to “a really perfect gaming PC,” citing the console’s combination of “phenomenal” hardware and convenient user experience. He went on to say “”The other exciting thing is that… when you think about Windows, even Windows for most people is tied to about 2GB of addressable memory space. This really opens up beyond what most PCs can do, because most PCs are running a 32-bit version of Windows.”
Sounds good to me.
kjkg
How is it possible that I read this whole article, never truely understood most of it yet it still raised my level of excitement by a couple of notches.
MadJunkBoy
because it sounds good!
i did the exact same thing!
:P
matthangzhou
Yay pc play station eram architecture processing…sign me up!
MadJunkBoy
<3 PS4 <3
Avenger
Hopefully the devs will have some control over CPU/GPU resoures, otherwise performance estimates will be vague. With a lot more automation though, it should be easier to maximise the game engine and not worry about large levels and AI getting in the way.
DaProphecy726
I can’t wait for more reveals on the PS4. And hopefully they can explain about the tech that is in it so that we can understand.
Kennykazey
I think the APU architecture is exciting. The way I understand it, it allows the CPU and GPU to work together like siamese twins sort of.
But the best part of the entire hardware is easily the background processor, handling downloads and alike without leeching potential from the rest.
KeRaSh
Am I the only one who is slightly surprised that Sony has decided to let a non Japanese person head the design of their next flagship device? Don’t get me wrong, I love this guy and I have no doubt that he is more than capable of the task, but the Japanese seem very traditional about how to do their business and I always thought they wouldn’t let such important tasks in the hands of someone who works for a foreign subsidy of the parent company (asuming he works for SOA).
Has this always been the case? Who designed the PS3 or PS2 architecture? I always imagined there was an off the record black ops team of hardware/software geniuses (not the Apple guys, real geniuses…) who sat in a locked room for months and came out with a new console. >_>
bunimomike
The head of Sony was a Welsh lad up until recently so all bets are off! :-)
blast71
To a luddite like me, all this techno-jargon & specs, you might as well be speaking Welsh anyway ;p
Peter Chapman
Sony seems to have realised that they need someone who knows what Americans will develop for and buy. Mark Cerny is an actual genius too, that has to help!