The PS3 is rather powerful!!
Discussion
As I understand it the PS3 is based on the POWER architecture, although no-one seems to know for sure. Last time I looked IBM were sruggling to get performance out it for the G5 Mac. I guess they've fixed it now, but the problem came from the practicalities of getting good yield of semiconductor from the IBM semiconductor fabrication process.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
The Intel FPU is certainly not tardy, by anybodys standards, although there are better, you just don't find them in commercial equipment. The main point is that the best Intel Fab Process is the best, although they have many fabs, that are way down the scale.
The PS3 has multiple processors each with multiple vector processors. Critically it's all a bit mute, the only thing it's really good for is crunching numbers. If you asked it to wade through multi-billions of e-mail transactions, I fear it'd be looking rather poor.
Nevertheless it's very good at what it does.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
The Intel FPU is certainly not tardy, by anybodys standards, although there are better, you just don't find them in commercial equipment. The main point is that the best Intel Fab Process is the best, although they have many fabs, that are way down the scale.
The PS3 has multiple processors each with multiple vector processors. Critically it's all a bit mute, the only thing it's really good for is crunching numbers. If you asked it to wade through multi-billions of e-mail transactions, I fear it'd be looking rather poor.
Nevertheless it's very good at what it does.
dilbert said:
As I understand it the PS3 is based on the POWER architecture, although no-one seems to know for sure. Last time I looked IBM were sruggling to get performance out it for the G5 Mac. I guess they've fixed it now, but the problem came from the practicalities of getting good yield of semiconductor from the IBM semiconductor fabrication process.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
Just to clarify. PPC isn't Power, think of it as a baby brother, does everything the big one can but just not as grunty. The whole G5 escapade is quite complex from my understanding, but can be summed up as IBM thought they had Apple as a captive entity and then went off cavorting with Sony and co to deliver Cell and the speed/performance.
I'd guess Cell is a derivative of POWER. Not quite, but close enough so that things like Linux (PPC arch) will fire up on it.
tank slapper said:
Just saw this on another site:
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
so impressive they can't give them away at the minute!
Stigmundfreud said:
tank slapper said:
Just saw this on another site:
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
so impressive they can't give them away at the minute!
Is that so? I thought the price was a bit steep for what is, in essence, a games console
chris watton said:
so impressive they can't give them away at the minute!
Is that so? I thought the price was a bit steep for what is, in essence, a games console[/quote]
It is more than just a games console though, even though that is its main purpose. eg you can't get a standalone Blueray player for the price of the PS3 at the moment. I haven't had a chance to look at one closely yet so will reserve judgement, but it looks like it has a lot of potential.
I expect that rather like the PS2, the rather odd architchture will take a while for developers to get the most from, and that the best games will come later.
Stigmundfreud said:
tank slapper said:
Just saw this on another site:
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
so impressive they can't give them away at the minute!
I'm pretty sure they could give them away.
Had a go on a PS3 in PC World Yesterday, pretty graphics but I didn't see anything special about it.
I heard that yes the PS3 has a 'more' Powerful CPU(s) (Assuming they're used!!), but the 360 has a better graphics card. Either way they just providing more detailed graphics than previously. Which if that is your thing good for you.
However I personally prefer the look of the Wii, which appears to offer more entertainment than show.
I also hear that they are having difficulties with developing games for the PS3 as there apparently isn't a development environment established that can take full advantage of the multi-threaded environment required for the Cel. Its effectively several processors in one and games are generally not designed to be multi-threaded (required to fully use the micro). I believe it will come, but unless they can come up with some more original games I'm just going to ignore it.
My Two-penneth..
I heard that yes the PS3 has a 'more' Powerful CPU(s) (Assuming they're used!!), but the 360 has a better graphics card. Either way they just providing more detailed graphics than previously. Which if that is your thing good for you.
However I personally prefer the look of the Wii, which appears to offer more entertainment than show.
I also hear that they are having difficulties with developing games for the PS3 as there apparently isn't a development environment established that can take full advantage of the multi-threaded environment required for the Cel. Its effectively several processors in one and games are generally not designed to be multi-threaded (required to fully use the micro). I believe it will come, but unless they can come up with some more original games I'm just going to ignore it.
My Two-penneth..
Sharief said:
Stigmundfreud said:
tank slapper said:
Just saw this on another site:
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
Folding@home processing speed
Windows - TFLOPS = 152; No of CPUs = 1626413
PS3 - TFLOPS = 647; No of CPUs = 28669
That is pretty impressive no matter what your opinion of the PS3 as a games machine. Current stats are here
so impressive they can't give them away at the minute!
I'm pretty sure they could give them away.
already over £60 discount - stock left on shelves - hardly confidence inspiring for Sony is it? Wonder if they have missed the mark with this one somewhat.
Prace your blets now
Where can you get a £60 discount?
EDIT:
As for the folding@Home, those numbers are very impressive, but has nothing to do with the PPC architecture. The Cell has 1 version of a Power PC core which predominantly is used to schedule tasks accross the other 8 (or 7 in the PS3's case) SPE's which are like mini CPU's. The SPE's have amazing FP thoughput and this is where the Folding speed is comming from, not the PPC core.
EDIT:
As for the folding@Home, those numbers are very impressive, but has nothing to do with the PPC architecture. The Cell has 1 version of a Power PC core which predominantly is used to schedule tasks accross the other 8 (or 7 in the PS3's case) SPE's which are like mini CPU's. The SPE's have amazing FP thoughput and this is where the Folding speed is comming from, not the PPC core.
Edited by mr_yogi on Monday 26th March 09:04
ThePassenger said:
dilbert said:
As I understand it the PS3 is based on the POWER architecture, although no-one seems to know for sure. Last time I looked IBM were sruggling to get performance out it for the G5 Mac. I guess they've fixed it now, but the problem came from the practicalities of getting good yield of semiconductor from the IBM semiconductor fabrication process.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
The actual architectures (the design of the machines) doesn't seem to make huge difference among the top players these days. That said the only instance where the POWER architecture finds it's self at the top of the performance tree is in the PS3, if indeed it uses it.
Just to clarify. PPC isn't Power, think of it as a baby brother, does everything the big one can but just not as grunty. The whole G5 escapade is quite complex from my understanding, but can be summed up as IBM thought they had Apple as a captive entity and then went off cavorting with Sony and co to deliver Cell and the speed/performance.
I'd guess Cell is a derivative of POWER. Not quite, but close enough so that things like Linux (PPC arch) will fire up on it.
does that mean i can break open my old AIX cd and run it on a PS3?
tank slapper said:
tinman0 said:
does that mean i can break open my old AIX cd and run it on a PS3?
No, but you can run Linux on it. Yellow Dog is the 'official' one but people have got other distributions going on it - Fedora Core, Gentoo etc.
Wrong firmware for AIX to fire up, same reason OS X won't fire up on any generic PC (yes, I am aware of the hacked version but I'm keeping it legal)... although if you could replace the PS3's BIOS (or whatever) with that of a POWER machine... yeah AIX should actually run.
mr_yogi said:
Where can you get a £60 discount?
EDIT:
As for the folding@Home, those numbers are very impressive, but has nothing to do with the PPC architecture. The Cell has 1 version of a Power PC core which predominantly is used to schedule tasks accross the other 8 (or 7 in the PS3's case) SPE's which are like mini CPU's. The SPE's have amazing FP thoughput and this is where the Folding speed is comming from, not the PPC core.
EDIT:
As for the folding@Home, those numbers are very impressive, but has nothing to do with the PPC architecture. The Cell has 1 version of a Power PC core which predominantly is used to schedule tasks accross the other 8 (or 7 in the PS3's case) SPE's which are like mini CPU's. The SPE's have amazing FP thoughput and this is where the Folding speed is comming from, not the PPC core.
Edited by mr_yogi on Monday 26th March 09:04
Virgin. Can't give them away....
a friend paid in full and waited on the list, i raced round on friday night and had a go - wot a waste of time, the game (some army shoot them up) was very very average, so we tried to play old faithful (pro evolution soccer) and it dosent work !!! The money making machine known as Sony has triumphed again.
So we unpacked the ps2 ...........
So we unpacked the ps2 ...........
The lack of queueing etc is slightly mis leading.
Xbox 360's at launch for the entire country was something like 50,000.
Wii was a bit more.
PS3 is over 250,000, hence why there's plenty left on the shelfs...
Granted, the higher cost means they're probably not selling quite as well, but I highly doubt it's as bad as the media will have you believe...
Re. the virgin thing, you have to be a student to get that discount as the sign says, they did the same with the xbox 360, and every other product in their store... amazon have a similar discount.
Xbox 360's at launch for the entire country was something like 50,000.
Wii was a bit more.
PS3 is over 250,000, hence why there's plenty left on the shelfs...
Granted, the higher cost means they're probably not selling quite as well, but I highly doubt it's as bad as the media will have you believe...
Re. the virgin thing, you have to be a student to get that discount as the sign says, they did the same with the xbox 360, and every other product in their store... amazon have a similar discount.
Tonsko said:
A friend bought one on friday. He's taking it back today. Not impressed at all.
Why?
As per previous post. On The Gadget Show tonight they said that unlike the other consoles they (Sony) made sure that there was enough for all.....This could of course be all bull
Is it to late after leaving it sooo long for Xbox to get a hold. I have never been a console person but the PS3 did appeal to me but blueray? I am sure when the 1st specs came out it was going to be able to record TV, boil the kettle etc etc etc.
I will wait a couple of years and see what happens.
Consoles have always amused me anyhow. I mean I remember the Sega master system and the graphics on that looked like a Sinclair Spectrum to me.
Edited by morningside on Monday 26th March 21:14
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