Intel To Design PlayStation 4 GPU 288
madhatter256 writes "According to the Inquirer it looks like Intel will be designing Sony's next gen console GPU. It will most likely be an off-shoot of the Larrabee GPU architecture. It is also unknown as of yet if Intel will also take part in the CPU design of the console. Due to current economic times it was a no brainer for Sony to go with Intel. " The article also mentions rumors of ATI getting the Xbox3 GPU and, if history is any judge, the Wii2 as well.
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:5, Informative)
Do they have some magically awesome chipset that has never graced the consumer market?
Yes, Larrabee [anandtech.com]. It's a massively-multicored x86 processor designed to act as a GPU (it has some fixed-function GPU stuff tacked on).
In effect, Intel intends to build a GPU powerful enough to get software rendering (and all the flexibility and power that brings) up to the same speed as hardware-accelerated rendering. Intel is also going to be providing OpenGL/Direct3D abstraction layers so that existing games can work.
Larrabee is expected to at least be competitive with nVidia/AMD's stuff, although it might not be until the second generation product before they're on equal footing.
Why Intel? Because IBM screwed Sony... (Score:5, Informative)
From the article:
How Sony inadvertently helped a competitor and lost position in the videogame market.
Read here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123069467545545011.html [wsj.com]
Enjoy,
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:4, Informative)
No.
It's designed to be used as a GPU:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(GPU) [wikipedia.org]
looks really nice. I am looking forward to seeing what the finished product could do. The graphics market could use another competitor at the high consumer end.
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:3, Informative)
Well the Cell was a bit out there when it was conceived, and Larrabee's sort of in that position now. I guess Sony is trying to take the bad press that came from the Cell being "too difficult to code for" and going with it, still maintaining that multicore is the way to scale up performance. Good on 'em, I say (despite my overall negative feelings toward the company).
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:5, Informative)
Which is precisely why I think this story is bullshit.
This helps too: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/sony-shoots-down-intel-gpu-in-ps4-rumours-525563 [techradar.com]
Re:Why Intel? Because IBM screwed Sony... (Score:2, Informative)
The point of that WSJ piece is that the Xbox360 CPU and the PS3 CPU are the same because they both come from IBM?
It's bull. The xbox360 CPU is a totally different architecture of PowerPC. I'm amazed you posted that.
C
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:3, Informative)
The whole "cell is too hard to program for" bullshit was just a symptom of a larger industry-wide problem: education simply doesn't cover multi-threaded resource sharing nearly as well as it needs to.
I was speaking more about everything Sony has done since the walkman:
CD burners are too expensive and complicated, you say? Use our MD players, they record like a tape deck, but have the capacity of a CD in our proprietary format!
That digital camera too complicated? Use our sleek (if poorly engineered) alternative, they also use Memory Sticks (which you can only buy from us).
The Wii has motion sensitive controls? One word: Sixaxis.
In the same vein, if the Playstation 4 had three SKU's, with one of them being a "Playstation Lite" that's essentially a Wii with more processing power, I just wouldn't be surprised:
"Oh, Wii 2 not out yet? We've got the Playstation Lite, and it has the same motion sensitive controls!"
Really, through the past 20 years or so, Sony just sounds like a really rich cheap Chinese knockoff of everything else in the electronics market.
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:5, Informative)
What IDIOCY! (Score:5, Informative)
No, not the article.
The editor.
First off, Sony denied this already -- yesterday [techradar.com]. So this isn't news, and it's already-rejected news.
Secondly, what kind of idiot links to the Inquirer as a source? Remember, they're the ones who posted the article claiming the PS3 was "slow and broken" because they didn't understand a memory bandwidth chart.
Re:Because when I think graphics, I think intel (Score:5, Informative)
They even allow you to install another OS on their system. Compared to this, it is MS and Nintendo who are "Forcing their ill-conceived DRM laden formats" on the masses.
Unless you are talking strictly about Blu-Ray instead of Hardware. Don't know why that one would bother anyone, since DVD's and CD's also have DRM but no one seems worried about that.