Thursday, February 28th 2013
AMD Working On Stripped-Down PlayStation 4 SoC for PCs
Ahead of its unveiling last week, it was expected that Sony's PlayStation 4 console would be driven by little more than an AMD A-Series "Trinity" APU. It ended up being a lot more than that. The custom-design SoC that drives the next-generation console is a joint effort between AMD and Sony, which integrates an 8-core x86-64 CPU based on the company's new "Jaguar" micro-architecture; a GPU based on its Graphics CoreNext technology; a GDDR5 integrated memory controller, and certain enhancements by Sony. In an interview with The Inquirer, the company hinted that it's interested in porting the SoC over to the PC platform, minus Sony's share of the development.
PlayStation 4, although based on the x86 CPU machine-architecture, doesn't conform to any known PC specification. It uses 8 GB of GDDR5 memory as both system and graphics memory, several of its interfaces are out of specs of anything that can be implemented on a PC motherboard. Therefore, its SoC can't simply be soldered onto a PC motherboard. AMD would have to first strip the SoC of Sony's share of the development (or risk having to license it).
Next up, it would have to strip the chip of its most interesting component, the unified GDDR5 IMC. JEDEC does not have a GDDR5 DIMM specification, nor would motherboard makers be interested in hard-wiring expensive GDDR5 memory chips on to their motherboards and render the memory subsystem non-expandable. The PlayStation 4 SoC uses a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, with a stellar memory bandwidth of 176 GB/s. That's over six times the memory bandwidth of an Intel Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" machine running dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz. A fallback to DDR3 could hence greatly cripple the SoC. It would be extremely interesting to see how AMD handles the checks-and-balances needed to bring the SoC over to the PC.
Sources:
The Inquirer, The TechReport
Next up, it would have to strip the chip of its most interesting component, the unified GDDR5 IMC. JEDEC does not have a GDDR5 DIMM specification, nor would motherboard makers be interested in hard-wiring expensive GDDR5 memory chips on to their motherboards and render the memory subsystem non-expandable. The PlayStation 4 SoC uses a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, with a stellar memory bandwidth of 176 GB/s. That's over six times the memory bandwidth of an Intel Core i7 "Ivy Bridge" machine running dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz. A fallback to DDR3 could hence greatly cripple the SoC. It would be extremely interesting to see how AMD handles the checks-and-balances needed to bring the SoC over to the PC.
70 Comments on AMD Working On Stripped-Down PlayStation 4 SoC for PCs
If anything, it's slower: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSX_%27Reality_Synthesizer%27This logic applies to consoles in general. That's why a HD7950 is not a good candidate to play "every PS4 port ever".
Essentially it appears that we agree regarding the point at hand (7950 vs. PS4), so I don't really understand why your jimmies appear so rustled.
Also, nobody's judging anyone, except you with your ironically hypocritical assertion that we're quick to judge.
The 2 sources that were pointed out as I quoted only one had one sentence with SoC reference that was actually a mistake and refering to a APU.
I dont know how someone makes the leap from an interview of stricly APU referances and goes on about SoCs. Making 6 referances to it. Thats what I was getting it.
It be the first SoC (APU+/+/+/+/+/+/+/+)
/sarcasm
- I don't think you're "instigating an issue"
- I would not need to judge you to decide that you were "instigating an issue"
- Judging you would not be helpful in coming to any such conclusion
- I'm not judging you, I don't even know anything about you
Anyway, this is grossly unproductive, I'm unsubscribing from the thread.Knowing that Sony isn't an x86 CPU manufacturer, nor a GPU manufacturer. I highly doubt what's in that chip would be any of both. Hence, conforming to the SoC definition. The source may have not labeled it as such, but it is.
Now, from where I stand, neither btarunr nor the two sources are mistaken, the chip can be called either. As from what I know an APU is SoC.
Sarcasm aside, I'm interested in knowing why you believe the APUs aren't socs...
Then all's left is whether the actual chip used on the PS4 is a SoC or not.So much for a welcome-to-tpu-party :rolleyes:
Pitcairn is more likely 1.7-2.5 TFlops
As ive said sony had input we don't yet know What though.
Post 720 announcement these specs will expand imho
Great time to buy IMO with the PS4 confirmed AMD and the Xbox leaning...:laugh:
Would be great if both used an APU to run games. I would hope it meant console ports would be simpler and better. :cool:
Please correct me if I missed something.
It's very probable the a lot of the games coming out in the next years will have PC as lead platform and given the platform similarities, be scaled down or sideways or chopped into size for PS4/XBox3. Or keeping the same idea, "timed-exclusives" or console-exclusives be more inclined to also come to PC later on.
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