We Change Computing by PLAYSTATION 3"
The Reason Why PLAYSTATION Is In Capitals
Goto: PS3 is, if you look at just the spec, a full-spec computer. Why did you make it so rich?
Kutaragi: Since the beginning, we've been trying not to do a game console for children, but to do a computer for entertainment that grownups around the world can enjoy. We've been thinking about doing a computer thoroughly. Meanwhile, finally, PC has come to the dead end. So, this time, we want to do the next computer with partners such as IBM in an ensured way.
What we are thinking about this time is to change computing itself thoroughly. We want to change the paradigm. We want to set PS3 as the benchmark of everything.
G: Though its goal is a general computer, you took a game console as its form in the beginning.
K: A game console... maybe. At E3, it's a game console, and its applications are games. We really want to do computer entertainment. Other companies may call theirs game consoles, but we've been calling it as computer entertainment in press releases all along. It's entertainment and computer as well. It's important.
At this '3', for the first time we made the word PlayStation all capital "PLAYSTATION". We named it "PlayStation" at first, as workstations were our dream computers. We added the "PS" logo to it as PlayStation is a trademark and starts with P and S. But this time we use "PLAYSTATION" in capitals.
It's because, basically, with PC and all going to the dead end, it leads to nowhere if you ask whether it's a PC or a game console. I think we've entered the era in which you ask what is the next playstation. So PLAYSTATION is "The playstation". We do it for a bit of pride too.
Until now, it's said "let's take functions in arcade boards or workstations", or in the case of Microsoft, they said they'd use a cutting-edge PC as a game console. But it's no more. PLAYSTATION will develop as PLAYSTATION.
Calculations by A Cell Processor Will Produce Difference
G: So PS3 is a computer and its purpose is entertainment.
K: Of cource, in the beginning, it's about what's interesting as a game console, and as computer entertainment.
In PS1, making 3D or not was the biggest differentiation factor. In PlayStation 2, it was the mission to bring 3D in the complete single-standard format - complete NTSC and PAL - in full color. This time, it'll be the crucial difference from other platforms that we make it all computing. In the background of graphics, it does vast calculations, and it produces difference.
G: It does various simulations such as physics simulations, and operations such as AI, synthesis, in its background.
K: You can't see by just a glance if it's calculated by a Cell Processor or not even though it can show a beautiful HD video. But, if you look at it carefully, calculated things and only converted things are clearly different. You can feel it as an awesome thing when you see it, as it's calculated. You can do thing you've never seen, you can enjoy contents themselves.
In the case of other companies, the inside is the same even though its graphics becomes HD. They hardly calculate things. Like hardly doing physics and just adding a motion by a motion capture. Even though you can't tell by just a glance, such differences can be seen quickly.
G: Do software developers understand that point?
K: I think developers have an undestanding of it. At E3 demo, they tried to do it in real time on the spot rather than prerendering and precalculation. At E3, many demos do various calulations in the background. Also in graphics, how it moves is all done by calculations. Things that couldn't be calculated without huge time until now, they can be done on Cell (in realtime). They'll try to create games that take advantage of it.
Also for audio, it's natural that it doesn't have an audio chip. It's because we calculate it (with Cell). The audio is not like how many voices you have - the audio itself becomes an object.
Between our demo and their demo, such contriving is the difference. They are different more than just the look. I think most people who attended the E3 press conference understood it. A certain famous journalist let slip a word that XBOX is 1.5 while PS is 3.5 as it was above the expectation, they are different like that.
The Difference Between PS3 and XBOX 360 You Can't See From The Specs
G: The messages are clearly different between XBOX 360 and PS3. XBOX 360 pushed the image that they could prepare a solid game console as a platform. PS3 emphasized the possibility of the technologies.
K: This time, Microsoft clearly profess that they are chasing PlayStation. However, what they are chasing are not PLAYSTATION 3 but PlayStation 2. Because they don't know PS3 we are just making now. They become like that as they look at PS2. The goals are different. However, most people can't tell the difference just by looking at the specs. We got mistaken in a similar way in the time of PS1. We'd been evaluated that the both were 3D, along with 3DO. Even though we argued that PS1 calculated 3D while 3DO didn't, we were said that the both were 3D and had CD-ROM, it's terrible like that.
This time, either, they may not be able to see the difference between PS3 and XBOX 360 if the spec sheets are shown side by side. But, at E3, many people said it was good to be able to come and see it, not by the spec. It'll be more infected and understood when it's released.
G: By PC getting to the dead end, do you mean with PC dragged by legacies innovation is difficult and you can't go nowhere?
K: (Current computers) can't make the most of it as a total even though individual devices have their performances. Various bottlenecks are found when you assemble them. If you can make the most of it, you ought to be do decent things if you combine 3.X Ghz Pentium 4 and boards by NVIDIA or ATI, but you can't.
What I call total is the buses, the loads, and other factors when they work together. You can't know it unless you do games (that have a high load). We made the architecture considering all those things. For instance, each SPE works indepedently, and SRAM is attached there, also large GPR (general purpose registers) are attached too. Because of that it can do huge calculations in realtime. Such an architecture is important.
(the excerpt of Goto's comment:
This time, Playstation aims, with a will, at the post-PC, next-generation computer. In PlayStation 2 it was not enough by various factors such as flexibility of the hardware, but in PS3 it seems he thinks he could get an innovative architecture as a computer, with IBM. The "playstation" as a general noun suggests various form factors in the category of playstation. SCE's message for games is that games can be innovative on a computer that pursues computer entertainment.)
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0609/kaigai187.htm
) , còn Ps lúc mới ra đến giờ vẫn tay cầm đó , cảm thấy như ko hề bắt chước ai cả ^^ xì tin nhá
