Sony has revealed the first specs for what system architect Mark Cerny refers to as its 'next-gen console' in a fascinating interview piece for Wired. It confirms the key technologies in place for the new hardware, the exciting news that solid-state storage will take centre-stage in the new machine and - perhaps best of all - the fact that the next Sony platform will feature backwards compatibility with current market leader, PS4. Will it be called PlayStation 5? Sony isn't saying, but it does seem like the obvious choice.
A lot of the information revealed today serves as confirmation to long-existing rumours and speculation, specifically that Sony has adopted the latest technologies available from hardware partner AMD. That begins with the processor architecture - cited as third generation Ryzen cores designed for the 7nm fabrication process, based on the upcoming Zen 2 design set to be revealed for the PC desktop market later in the year. What is exciting here is that as per our thoughts last year, the small area occupied by the Zen core means that Sony can deliver a full eight cores, presumably supplemented by hyper-threading, for a 16 thread total. This ensures a massive generational leap over the lacklustre Jaguar technology found in the current generation of console hardware, allowing for higher frame-rates, more complex world simulation and more detail.
On the GPU side of the equation, a custom variant of AMD's upcoming Navi architecture is also confirmed, but this is where details are very thin on the ground. The understanding we have is that on the one hand, Navi is a new iteration of the existing AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, which suggests a structural limit of 64 compute units or 4096 shaders. But on the other, certain leaks have suggested that Navi is geared more towards pixel-pushing as opposed to its immediate predecessor, the more compute-orientated Vega. I wouldn't underestimate the 'custom' side of the equation either: Sony has spent years on this project and with PS4 Pro, the firm has shown how it's prepared to innovate in areas that PC gaming is only now starting to get to grips with. Secret sauce? Quite possibly.
from Eurogamer.net http://bit.ly/2ZhKWBy
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