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Radeon350
NVIDIA, Sony and PlayStation 3
An unexpected announcement and a few questions answered.
December 07, 2004 - Last night around midnight NVIDIA announced that it
has been working with Sony on the GPU for Sony's forthcoming computer
entertainment system. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that
they're talking about PlayStation 3 here. Note that the PlayStation 3
name isn't actually official yet, though we'll continue to use it as
it's basically guaranteed that's what Sony will call its PlayStation 2
successor.
The press release basically states that NVIDIA is and has been working
on a GPU for Sony's system for some time now, and unfortunately not a
whole hell of a lot more than that. This sort of came from left field
as it sounded like Sony's Cell processor was going to be doing all of
the work in its upcoming console, including the graphical duties. Still
though, it would have seemed a bit odd for NVIDIA to leave ATI as the
sole third-party GPU supplier for the upcoming console generation, as
ATI is (unofficially and yet officially) supplying the GPU for the
successor to Xbox and Nintendo's next as well.
While this does bring about a bit of confusion, there have also likely
been a few sighs of relief around the industry. The PS2's obvious weak
points are low texture memory and poor image quality. Coupling with
NVIDIA practically guarantees the second part won't be a problem. The
first is obviously still up in the air, but we don't assume Sony will
drop the ball on this one again.
We had a chance to fire off a handful of questions to David Roman over
at NVIDIA about the partnership. He wasn't able to answer some of our
more probing questions obviously, but a few interesting things were
mentioned:
Firstly, how long has NVIDIA been working with Sony on this
collaboration?
David Roman: NVIDIA has been working on aspects of Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc.'s next generation system for the past 2 years.
How did NVIDIA become involved with working with Sony? Which party
approached whom?
David Roman: Difficult to say. We have been talking to Sony about very
many different projects from the early days of starting NVIDIA.
The Xbox GPU is essentially a beefy version of the GeForce 3. Will the
PS3 (or whatever it will be called) GPU be based on forthcoming desktop
GPU architecture or will it be its own entity entirely?
David Roman: It is a custom version of our next generation GPU
Up to this point, due to its proclaimed power, we had assumed that the
Cell processor would be doing all of the processing in the PS3, both
the generalized (AI, physics, etc.) and all of the graphical work. Will
NVIDIA's GPU work in the terms that we're currently used to and handle
the graphics entirely, or will it work with Cell in ways that current
GPUs don't and let Cell handle some of the work (say, vertex
transformation, for example)?
David Roman: I don't have that information. I know that this is a
custom chip and we are working on its development with Sony Computer
Entertainment
Will NVIDIA's GPU work be tied into the Cell architecture, or will it
be a separate chip in the PS3?
David Roman: It will be a separate chip
S-Mart or Quickie Mart?
David Roman: ...
Unfortunately our questions regarding such things as image quality, HD
support and backwards compatibility couldn't be commented on at this
time, but we sort of assumed that going in. At any rate, a few answers
bring up a few interesting points, which only lead to more interesting
questions.
Firstly, if NVIDIA's GPU for PS3 is a custom version of its next-gen
chip, then SLI (or dual chip) is practically a shoe-in. We'd put a few
bucks on the line that says there will be at least two NVIDIA branded
GPUs in PlayStation 3. The interesting thing would be to see more than
two, but that's for future investigation.
What we're not sure to what to make of here is how the Cell processor
and NVIDIA-based GPU will work together. It's been said that the Cell
processor is to be unbelievably fast, and if so it may outpace NVIDIA's
GPU by quite a bit, meaning that the GPU will be the bottleneck in the
system. Or alternatively, NVIDIA's next GPU will be blazing fast,
faster than we'd expect, which should make console and PC gamers alike
giddy with excitement.
A third option would be that Sony's Cell processor does indeed work
with NVIDIA's GPU in a different fashion than regular CPUs tend to work
with graphics solutions today. What way that could possibly be, we
don't know. If we had to speculate, we'd say it would be something like
performing vertex transformation in Cell and the lighting and shading
via NVIDIA's part. Again, we can only wait and see what the truth is.
We should find out the exact details behind all of this by E3 next
year, or possibly as early as GDC or so if we're lucky. Either way,
we're hoping that the hype behind Cell actually holds some weight and
that NVIDIA can couple a graphics solution to it that really provides
for a next-generation gaming experience.
-- Chris Roper
An unexpected announcement and a few questions answered.
December 07, 2004 - Last night around midnight NVIDIA announced that it
has been working with Sony on the GPU for Sony's forthcoming computer
entertainment system. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that
they're talking about PlayStation 3 here. Note that the PlayStation 3
name isn't actually official yet, though we'll continue to use it as
it's basically guaranteed that's what Sony will call its PlayStation 2
successor.
The press release basically states that NVIDIA is and has been working
on a GPU for Sony's system for some time now, and unfortunately not a
whole hell of a lot more than that. This sort of came from left field
as it sounded like Sony's Cell processor was going to be doing all of
the work in its upcoming console, including the graphical duties. Still
though, it would have seemed a bit odd for NVIDIA to leave ATI as the
sole third-party GPU supplier for the upcoming console generation, as
ATI is (unofficially and yet officially) supplying the GPU for the
successor to Xbox and Nintendo's next as well.
While this does bring about a bit of confusion, there have also likely
been a few sighs of relief around the industry. The PS2's obvious weak
points are low texture memory and poor image quality. Coupling with
NVIDIA practically guarantees the second part won't be a problem. The
first is obviously still up in the air, but we don't assume Sony will
drop the ball on this one again.
We had a chance to fire off a handful of questions to David Roman over
at NVIDIA about the partnership. He wasn't able to answer some of our
more probing questions obviously, but a few interesting things were
mentioned:
Firstly, how long has NVIDIA been working with Sony on this
collaboration?
David Roman: NVIDIA has been working on aspects of Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc.'s next generation system for the past 2 years.
How did NVIDIA become involved with working with Sony? Which party
approached whom?
David Roman: Difficult to say. We have been talking to Sony about very
many different projects from the early days of starting NVIDIA.
The Xbox GPU is essentially a beefy version of the GeForce 3. Will the
PS3 (or whatever it will be called) GPU be based on forthcoming desktop
GPU architecture or will it be its own entity entirely?
David Roman: It is a custom version of our next generation GPU
Up to this point, due to its proclaimed power, we had assumed that the
Cell processor would be doing all of the processing in the PS3, both
the generalized (AI, physics, etc.) and all of the graphical work. Will
NVIDIA's GPU work in the terms that we're currently used to and handle
the graphics entirely, or will it work with Cell in ways that current
GPUs don't and let Cell handle some of the work (say, vertex
transformation, for example)?
David Roman: I don't have that information. I know that this is a
custom chip and we are working on its development with Sony Computer
Entertainment
Will NVIDIA's GPU work be tied into the Cell architecture, or will it
be a separate chip in the PS3?
David Roman: It will be a separate chip
S-Mart or Quickie Mart?
David Roman: ...
Unfortunately our questions regarding such things as image quality, HD
support and backwards compatibility couldn't be commented on at this
time, but we sort of assumed that going in. At any rate, a few answers
bring up a few interesting points, which only lead to more interesting
questions.
Firstly, if NVIDIA's GPU for PS3 is a custom version of its next-gen
chip, then SLI (or dual chip) is practically a shoe-in. We'd put a few
bucks on the line that says there will be at least two NVIDIA branded
GPUs in PlayStation 3. The interesting thing would be to see more than
two, but that's for future investigation.
What we're not sure to what to make of here is how the Cell processor
and NVIDIA-based GPU will work together. It's been said that the Cell
processor is to be unbelievably fast, and if so it may outpace NVIDIA's
GPU by quite a bit, meaning that the GPU will be the bottleneck in the
system. Or alternatively, NVIDIA's next GPU will be blazing fast,
faster than we'd expect, which should make console and PC gamers alike
giddy with excitement.
A third option would be that Sony's Cell processor does indeed work
with NVIDIA's GPU in a different fashion than regular CPUs tend to work
with graphics solutions today. What way that could possibly be, we
don't know. If we had to speculate, we'd say it would be something like
performing vertex transformation in Cell and the lighting and shading
via NVIDIA's part. Again, we can only wait and see what the truth is.
We should find out the exact details behind all of this by E3 next
year, or possibly as early as GDC or so if we're lucky. Either way,
we're hoping that the hype behind Cell actually holds some weight and
that NVIDIA can couple a graphics solution to it that really provides
for a next-generation gaming experience.
-- Chris Roper