Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by saagarjha 2171 days ago
Video game CPUs aren’t generally where the puck is going, sadly. Cell was interesting but other than that we’ve had a history of picking a semi-popular architecture and usually some old chip (Nintendo) or just a normal x86.
1 comments
russellbeattie 2170 days ago
You are totally mistaken. Have you seen what the PS5 is doing with memory bandwidth? It's amazing. The entire PC industry is going to end up emulating their architecture.
link
fomine3 2169 days ago
Memory bandwidth (by using GDDR6 for shared RAM/VRAM) is impressive compared to PC but it's already done by PS4(GDDR5) and not special/difficult architecture like Cell. Just a difference comparing general hardware vs gaming hardware.

For normal PC workload, such bandwidth is not useful and GDDR increases latency.

IMO Interesting thing like HBM is happening in Server/HPC world.

link
russellbeattie 2169 days ago
I was talking about PS5's secondary storage being essentially as fast as RAM: 9GB/sec throughput with custom 12-channel controller to the new PCIe 4.0 SSD.

https://screenrant.com/ps5-io-ssd-speed-tech-specs-playstati...

link
fomine3 2169 days ago
It's impressively fast and adopting it as standard equipment is great but similar SSD product should be available for PC soon. Not feel innovative like Cell.
link
russellbeattie 2168 days ago
Right, so you could say that "being available for PC soon" means that's "where the puck is going", correct? Which was my original point. The PS5 is a video game console, but isn't just commodity hardware, but is actually pushing the limits of computing in a way that the PC industry will soon adopt.

Also. It might be much longer than "soon". Though Sony is targeting the next gen SSD specs (unlike Microsoft), there will need to be a new generation of motherboards and CPU upgrades before PCs will be able to come close to the PS5 bandwidth, even with the same exact next gen SSD.

link
fomine3 2168 days ago
I don't think the PS5 will make SSD manufacturers to develop faster SSDs. It's already on the roadmap.

But I want the PS4 to enforce a fast SSD as a requirement for PC game, like you say. I think game consoles have a power to standardize great techs, but no longer makes innovating techs for computing.

"a new generation of motherboards and CPU" was available in 2019.

link