FUTURE WATCH: PlayStation 4 (Page 2 of 3)

System Specs

Much like its predecessor, the PlayStation 3, the Sony Galaxy is founded on the Cell processor. Only instead of one 3.2 Cell processor, the Galaxy will include four dedicated Cell processors each running at 3.8 Ghz. This is a logical choice, given that in seven years, manufacturing costs on the Cell processor will have dropped to a mere fraction of its current cost. And thanks to ever-shrinking CPU die sizes and power-saving optimizations, Sony should be able to pack in many Cell processors without overheating the unit. The resulting performance should give developers the power to handle wide-scale global physics models that dwarf current implementations (full-scale destructible environments and deformable terrain), allow for more complex artificial intelligence algorithms, and massive amounts of particle effects.

In keeping with the law of eights -- game consoles typically increase their RAM capacities by eightfold from generation to generation -- the Sony Galaxy comes equipped with 4 GB of unified system/video RAM, easily allowing the system to display a native resolution of 1920 x 1080p visuals with no upsampling and also provide plenty of texture and system RAM for the most demanding games. The console will also support the full gamut of television resolutions, even the outdated 480i (for those poor saps still stuck using this archaic display tech in 2012).

Though it's impossible to speculate about the nature of the 3D graphics business in seven years, we do have some early leads about the kind of technology that might be included in the PlayStation Galaxy. It's highly likely that multi-GPU technology will be employed, giving the console the ability to handle high-end anisotropic texture filtering, advanced shading and lighting effects, and enormous numbers of polygons. Also, we'll take this one step further and predict that the console will contain a standalone anti-aliasing buffer chip that will apply an 8x anti-aliasing filter to all outputted video signals, further increasing sharpness and resolution.

Games and Storage

Peering into our crystal ball, it's becoming increasingly clear that Sony's Blu-ray Disc format won't be an unequivocal success. Rather than repeat past mistakes, we predict that Sony will eschew clumsy optical drive technology in order to focus on a more elegant, integrated digital distribution via its PlayStation Online network. Players will download new Galaxy games, older PS1/PS2/PS3 games, movies, music, and other content on a pay-per-play basis. As with the PS3 online service, demos and trial software will be available as free downloads. To store all this downloaded content, the Sony Galaxy will include an integrated 1TB hard drive as a standard feature.

But we predict that Sony won't entirely abandon retail sales. For gamers who prefer to have a physical copy of their games, Sony will sell hot titles on high-density flash RAM-based game cards, which will have reached high enough capacities (16 and 32 GB) and low enough costs by 2012 to make them a cost-effective means of distributing content. Only the most successful titles, judged by online sales, will make the jump to brick-and-mortar retail stores, and many will include exclusive features or collector's items in order to bolster sales.

Comments [1]

post a comment

  • First
    • Jump To Page:
    • [ 1 ]
  • Last
  • First
    • Jump To Page:
    • [ 1 ]
  • Last

Post a Comment