Playstation 3, Hella Fast, Hella Powerful!

Warning: Look out everyone, this article is going to get real technical, real fast, I'll do my best to explain what I can, but if you are a bit confused, I apologize.

What exactly is one teraflop? Well, perhaps to save time, let's begin with the flop, or more accurately, FLOP. A FLOP stands for Floating-Point Operations Per Second, and they measure the internal calculation speed of a processor. Of course, here in the modern age we are more used to hearing about megahertz as a processor speed indicator. But why is this tried and true definition a bit out of date? Well, MHz is usually a good measurement of the speed of a single processor, but what about multiple processor machines, such as supercomputers? Since supercomputers have redundancy of processors, sometimes numbering into the thousands, it is hard to measure speed in megahertz, since you can't do simple multiplication and get a realistic number for how fast they really go. So a different measurement is used, and the flop is it. So, how does that compare to modern desktop PC's? Well, it's hard to say really. Any estimate of how fast a desktop PC runs depends on about one thousand factors, the biggest of which being the processor's instruction set, which acts as a road map for how the processor reacts to certain calculations. Naturally, the smaller the road map, the faster the processor can move. Currently the fastest claim in the desktop PC in terms of flops is the Macintosh G4, at 15 gigaflops (gigaflop = 1 billion flops). Most Supercomputers run anywhere from 500 gigaflops to a whopping 12.3 teraflops (teraflop = 1 trillion flops). Sony claims that the new chip they are designing will be a single processor which can run at one teraflop. Or, nearly 1,000 times faster than the fastest PC, and running at supercomputer speed.

So, how are they going to do it? Is it even possible?

According to Shinichi Okamoto, the Chief Technology Officer at Sony, not only is it possible, but they are going to do it. With some help and a total disregard for convention. Sony has enlisted the help of computing pioneer and makers of the biggest supercomputers in existence, IBM. With the help of IBM and the solid foundation of Deep Blue technology (Tangent: Remember Deep Blue? It was the supercomputer that beat Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster and world champion.) Sony will break into your homes with, as SixShooter said, a supercomputer in your living room. And the disregard for convention part? You bet, in making this new chip Sony will have to ignore the established Moore's Law, which states that processor speed doubles every 18 months.

This new chip, as if I need to tell you, will be the heart, soul, and muscle of the next generation Playstation, the PS3. But a kick-ass processor isn't all they claim to have on it, it will come with 256 megs of onboard DRAM, for more textures, polys, and surfaces than any console or PC ever. And a much more powerful sound board, capable of multiple digital output. And it will be multiplayer, if that term will still be used for a network delivery system capable of connecting millions of users simultaneously. Oh yes, the Playstation 3 will be backbreakingly powerful. In fact, that same Sony guy I mentioned before, claims that the Playstation 3 will be 1,000 times more powerful than the Playstation 2. Sony looks like it is betting heavily on the Playstation for the entire parent company as well. According to another Sony spokesman Ken Kutaragi, the entire company is hoping that the entertainment division will set standards for other divisions. Remember, in 1996 when the Playstation first came out the division of Sony that made the Playstation, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), was hoping to bring in only 1% of the entire company profit. Here in 2002, that number is much higher, even today where Sony takes a loss on every PS2 unit sold.

So, the Playstation 3 will kick ass, no several billion asses every second, and be easily the most powerful console system ever. If it lives up to the hype. Certainly though it is the most ambitious gaming project for the moment. You will have a while to wait on it though; the Playstation 3 is not scheduled for release yet. However, the chip project (nicknamed CELL) is scheduled for completion in 2004, so we have a lot of time to drool and wait before PS3 even reaches more than a wistful dream of multiple frags and 46 million l33t polys.

Thanks to: Supercomputer.com, CoreMagazine, Gamespot, and my brother, the one and only SixShooter.