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Game Console Architecture In-Depth

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Over the course of the past ten years at Ars is proud to have run a ton of technical articles that people keep coming back to for reference and geek edification. Among their most popular articles have been those dedicated to the inner workings of popular game consoles, especially those from Sony and Microsoft. In this inaugural installment of Classic.Ars, a new series aimed at introducing Ars classics to newer readers, they take you deep inside the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
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arstechnica.com
BIoodmask - contributor
Published: 488 days ago | Article | PlayStation 3 | Xbox 360 | PlayStation 2
 
 

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UltimateIdiot911 - 488 days 1 hour ago
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1 -
It's an interesting article. I think it's smart of Sony to make new and better architecture. It's definitely a challenge in the beginning but it will keep developers on their toe and a goal. Why work hard if the bars are low?
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C_SoL - 487 days 20 hours ago
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1.1 - ya but,
u gotta realize everything cost money & "supposedly" it costs more to develop on the PS3.....
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Some_One_Plays - 487 days 20 hours ago
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1.2 - C_SoL
It might cost more, but in the end you can make better games. You can go on the Wii with the cheapest console with almost no ambition or go with the pricey products. When looking at price you have to ask yourself will it do what we want or should we look else where? It's like saying HD (High Definition) TVs cost more than SD (Standard Definiion) TVs, but is it worth it?
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UltimateIdiot911 - 487 days 19 hours ago
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1.3 - @C_Sol
Let's step back for a minute, when you look at broadband speed around the world, US ranks pretty low. When you look at Korea, Japan, China and other asian countries, they get speed like 60 Mbps compare to our average 1.5 or 2 Mbps. It's been like this for years, and US continues to trail behind because it's a capitalistic market.

People and companies have to pay for improvement, so they rather stick with the old. In Japan, and other asian countries, the government actually use tax money to improve their network. So, as they continue to improve, US continues to stand still.

To sum it all up, progress comes with a price and it's worth it in the long run.
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Bangladesh - 487 days 17 hours ago
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1.4 - Umm, No
I haven't seen the Cell do anything "better" in the game space. If anything it has proven to be a bad decision when compared to the dev cycles, and performance of multi-plat games. I own a ps3, and I haven't seen it do anything that the 360 can't do, or hasn't already done. Anyone that says otherwise is FOS.

Where are these 2005 KZ2 video quality games that Sony promised us? Where are these dual 1080p games running at 120fps? And most importantly, were are the f*cking RPG's Sony?
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karlostomy - 487 days 13 hours ago
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1.5 - @ ultimate
That's a nice theory, however, it is fundamentally flawed.
The reason? ... Geography

Japan and S.korea have relatively less land area to supply infrastructure to their relative populations.

eg. in america and australia, to cover every city with dedicated infrastructure costs the governement much more money, than in, say, Japan. In other words, the australian and american governments have to lay much more cable to get the same network coverage.

Hence the capitalist (market) model is the most efficient at providing infrastructure to the masses.

If the Market demands the investment, then the market will eventually supply it.
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UltimateIdiot911 - 487 days 11 hours ago
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1.6 - @karl
While that is true, but it still doesn't change the fact that the US doesn't give government incentive to make these changes. Japan and Korea does. The worst part is we have one of the highest rate for internet.

@bangladesh
The Cell isn't all about graphic. It's about number crunching, so that means superior AI, physics, rapid streaming of data, etc. I have no problem with waiting as long as it means quality game. The next game to probably show the graphic ability of the PS3 is Heavy Rain. If that isn't good graphic then I don't know what is.
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C_SoL - 487 days 7 hours ago
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1.7 - i agree with all of u except............
Bangladesh <<< what an idiot....
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1.8 Man_of_the_year | 487 days 5 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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shazam - 487 days 3 hours ago
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1.9 -
why the hell is Bangladesh still in the gamerzone. its clear that he hates everything not pro microsoft.
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Raoh - 488 days ago
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2 -
Very interesting article indeed. i agree that its smart for sony to make new and better architecture..

but they need to make it more accessible and be willing to extend themselves to developers on the first go round of their new consoles...
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zo6_lover27 - 488 days ago
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3 -
I wonder if anyone will notice this

"The only current-generation console that the author owns is a (rarely played) Wii, though there is a 160GB PS3 in his future. Stay tuned for more Ars classics every weekend."

Another neglected Wii, mine shares a similar fate. And good for him going for the ps3
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DJ - 487 days 21 hours ago
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4 - The one important thing about Cell is that it's a long-term platform
Once you learn Cell, that knowledge (and code) will apply to all future Cell CPUs, which was a tough but great decision by STI. Also, hopefully Microsoft sticks with PowerPC for their next console, as it would allow developers to tackle the hardware a lot faster, or at least at the same rate as PS4 developers.
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Cynjo - 487 days 20 hours ago
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5 - The future is now........
Yes not only will Cell technology help progress the future of PC and videogames but it will be beneficial to every life in general. I'm looking forward to the day when we can harness such power and use it for more productive things. Hey...Don't get me wrong here I'm not speaking ill of videogame development practices or even the way they use the hardware. I'm saying that it will be a great day in history when we can use cell to it full extent. Cell is not a platform that will diminish over a small period of time. Its the future of productivity, home care,games virtually everything will benefit because of cell CPU's in do time....that snip it from a article from (official PlayStation magazine from 2005) may be coming true....it will do everything & cook you toast to boot!

I'm a 360 owner and I have a strong believe that all company's will come embrace cell technology in some form or another in the years to come. ppl may have forgotten that it was a joint contribution by IBM/Sony/Toshiba.
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kingnick - 487 days 19 hours ago
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5.1 -
I think AMD and Intel will continue their own ventures which will be superior to the Cell in many areas, double precision being a likely one. The Cell has its uses but isn't suited as a general purpose CPU.
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DJ - 487 days 18 hours ago
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5.2 - Yet it runs general purpose code (i.e. office programs and whatnot)
Just as good as any other standard CPU. You can use it for general consumer products like Personal Computers, as well as Servers, Game Consoles, Blu-ray Players, HDTVs, etc.
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vdesai - 487 days 18 hours ago
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5.3 -
Yes the cell is suited for general purpose computing. The most important "feature" of a processor is crunching numbers, there you have it. You can run linux on practically anything. The only reason windows dose not run on other architectures because it has been on there for ever and it takes skill and time to create code that you can run on different architectures. Its much easier to stick to one and continue to develop for it. FYI blade servers use cells. Our current processors just won't be able to handle HD media soon, even some of the highend CPUs have a hard time decoding (or encoding) hd media.
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Bangladesh - 487 days 16 hours ago
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5.4 -
You aren't going to see PC's using the Cell. Because, it lacks the level of general purpose processing that a multi-core processor does. What you will see the Cell in is HDTV's, cellphones, camera's and blu-ray players, because ironically enough regarding the ps3, the Cell is a cutting edge HD video codec decoding processor.
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5.5 dukadork | 487 days 15 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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Bangladesh - 487 days 14 hours ago
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5.6 - lol
Nope.

Why not list the things the spu's can't do effeciently. Things like A.I., U.I., and anything else that requires branch prediction. Instead of the things the GPU is meant for. I suppose you don't see a connection between Sony-Toshiba-HDTV's-Sony Motion Pictures-Cell-ps3-and blu-ray. I smell naivety.
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kingnick - 487 days 13 hours ago
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5.7 -
Firstly the Cell and Xenon have very weak branch prediction and comparatively small caches which compounds the issue, they are both optimised for streaming media applications and lack execution units so they would be trounced by a modern AMD or Intel processor when it comes to office productivity suites and other complex, branching non-graphical PC activities.

Windows is developed for x86 and claiming its beyond Microsoft's ability to develop for other platform is pure BS, look at the 360 or any other non-x86 Microsoft product to see proof of that.

Microsoft could release a non-x86 Windows but they won’t as it’s not in their interests.

Most core2duos and recent AMD processors handle 1080p content just fine.

The ironic part is that both the Cell and Xenon aren’t the best at game logic and AI and more geared towards media when compared to traditional PC CPUs.
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DJ - 487 days 7 hours ago
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5.8 - If you go through the IBM White Papers
Each SPU can run general purpose applications about 90% as fast as a 3.2Ghz G5 Processor. That's more than good enough, especially if you have 7 SPUs to rely on.

While AI code is typically branch heavy, it actually doesn't have to be. In-order processing simply requires a new way of writing code for say Sound, AI, Graphics, etc, not necessarily "better" or "worse". But for code that possibly does require branch predicting, Cell does have a built in function called Branch Hinting, which allows for a similar function.

And Bangladesh is seriously embarrassing them self. SPUs are extremely powerful SIMD processors, and a lot of things like Sound, Physics, Graphics and (you guessed it) HD video processing and upscaling/filtering require a lot of SIMD power. Current x86 processors can (finally) handle 1080p video, but Cell can run six 1080p video streams at once. So....they have some catching up to do.

I do a lot of video editing and effects work, so I pray to god future Cell CPUs will make their way into at least the Mac series of desktops/laptops.
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Oner - 487 days 6 hours ago
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5.9 - ...
Why can't more N4G posts & articles be more like these above? Excellent info and discussions going on here guys.
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vdesai - 487 days 6 hours ago
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5.10 -
Because there are many articles that don't require educated comments to be made. I wish there were more of these.
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kingnick - 486 days 16 hours ago
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5.11 - @5.8
There's a reason Apple dropped PowerPC and decided to go with Intel, performance.

For starters the G5's are very obsolete, IBM like to make ambiguous blanket statements that aren't true except under very specific and biased situations that are not real-world indicative tests by any means.

Reactive, highly complex AI will always be branch heavy. Branch hinting is nowhere near as good as proper branch prediction and one only needs to crawl google for developers’ thoughts on the matter.

In-order processors have been around for a long time and many of their inadequacies continue. Smart coding can alleviate and remove some issues but many still remain.
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jerethdagryphon - 487 days 18 hours ago
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6 - cell
eventually cell is likly to be coupled

a am2 quad core with 2x cells would lead lots of processing power considering thats how the layout is in roadrunner ibms sueper computer
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kingnick - 487 days 13 hours ago
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6.1 -
There won't be any successful Cell powered consumer PCs anytime soon if only for the fact that Windows is x86/x64 only. Add to that that office productivity would be lower on a Cell power PC and straight away it's apparent Cell is not suited for the bulk of PC users.

If anything the SPE's minus PPE will be utilised to accelerate media (encoding, decoding ect) with other work left to the x86/x64 processor that is more suited for it, just look at Toshiba’s recent Cell-derived effort that lacks a PPE and is not a true Cell for proof of this.
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DJ - 487 days 7 hours ago
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6.2 - You're accidentally regurgitating FUD.
If you want to know the truth, the PPU was only put into Cell to give programmers familiar architecture to rely on, and then slowly wean themselves off of. PowerPC architecture, as great as it may be, is simply not as powerful, nor efficient, as SPU architecture.

They're good at general purpose, but excel at SIMD. On top of that, they're the most power and heat efficient cores on the market right now. It makes sense to supplement current PC CPUs with SPUs to help offload SIMD-heavy tasks. Most consumers don't need Sound or Graphics acceleration, so of course they'd simply advertise "Video Encoding." SIMD is great for a myriad of tasks.
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kingnick - 486 days 15 hours ago
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6.3 -
I'm really curious as to where you got that impression as everything I've read (and I read the odd tech paper) indicates that the PPE and SPE's have different strengths and weaknesses. The SPE's certainly aren't the all-in-wonder you tout them asand can be very expensive usage-wise when it comes to many tasks.

simple AI is easy on the SPE's but complex AI is so difficult to program and expensive in terms of processor usage that it will not be viable for most game developers who will continue to place the majority of their game logic and AI on the PPE.

The biggest trap people fall into is they look at the GFLOPS performance of a processor and automatically assume the processor will excel at anything when in reality SPEs and PPEs are far simpler than a modern Core2Duo or AMD Phenom core and have much bigger performance penalties for many common PC tasks.
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ApocalyPS3 - 487 days 18 hours ago
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7 - good read!
STI created a new architecture for the PC world, and it's advent can be seen as one of the more positive ideas that have been brought to the table, so to speak. Its influence in design will be seen in processors to succeed it, as they begin to surpass the water mark and build on the core initiatives that STI started all those years ago.

However, gaming consoles need to be efficient in their manufacturing process and the parts have to come at reasonable cost. I've gotten used to the fact that gaming is still expensive right now, and especially when these consoles launched. It could be argued that this is the way it is going to be from now on. Hopefully, we will see better pricing on the next consoles. If that means opting for cheaper parts, it can be argued that the compromise may not be worth it. But think about it twice, for the sake of costs: I just don't want to see another $600 launch.

Of course, having a console that expensive from the onset of the generation gives it plenty of lifespan. But truth be told, gaming on x360 or PS3 adds up to pretty much the same thing. What you could say about one game in either library, you could find an equal to in the other. Console aficionados don't want to see it that way, which I can understand why. But that's the way I see it myself. And technically, both consoles have the same capabilities...it can be argued to death which is superior and nothing will be gained from that argument.

I have high hopes for xbox 3, as I own an Xbox 360. If those rumors about Larrabee turn up true, x3 will be a pretty good system. DJ, I agree that both should stay with the processor line they've chosen to support. But if that were to limit the possibility of something greater to be discovered, I may not want that. One thing's for sure, they'll be packing serious power, come the next gen.

If you look up my comment history, I've not said anything negative about PS3. Maybe its supporters (mostly those who have such strong distaste for anything MS). I hold no grudges against any of them. I may not own a PS3, or have plans to buy one, but I will never see it as a bad console. I respect all PS3 owners.
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Gam71 - 487 days 12 hours ago
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7.1 -
"I respect all PS3 owners."

even Nasim?
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ApocalyPS3 - 487 days 2 hours ago
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7.2 -
"Maybe its supporters (mostly those who have such strong distaste for anything MS)."

that's the only people i may have a shred less of respect for, since they truly don't contribute to the collective good of this site.
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UltimateIdiot911 - 487 days 11 hours ago
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8 -
Another benefit of the Cell processor is actually helping the medical and science community. If anything, the PS3 is a cheap supercomputer. It's good to see the PS3 help make progress.
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silverchode - 487 days 6 hours ago
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8.1 -
the ps3 will find the cure to cancer by 2010 :)
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