US patent confirms PlayStation 3 ‘Cell’ chatter
SCE director patents secures PlayStation 3.
A patent filed to the US Patent Office back in September of last year, apparently confirms the “Cell” rumblings for PlayStation 3. Filed by Sony Computer Entertainment director Masakazu Suzuoki, the abstract for the machine reads as follows:
“A computer architecture and programming model for high speed processing over broadband networks are provided. The architecture employs a consistent modular structure, a common computing module and uniform software cells. The common computing module includes a control processor, a plurality of processing units, a plurality of local memories from which the processing units process programs, a direct memory access controller and a shared main memory. A synchronized system and method for the coordinated reading and writing of data to and from the shared main memory by the processing units also are provided. A hardware sandbox structure is provided for security against the corruption of data among the programs being processed by the processing units. The uniform software cells contain both data and applications and are structured for processing by any of the processors of the network. Each software cell is uniquely identified on the network. A system and method for creating a dedicated pipeline for processing streaming data also are provided.”
Then in the summary of the invention section, gaming machines are specifically mentioned. “This common computing module has a consistent structure and preferably employs the same ISA. The members of the network can be, e.g., clients, servers, PCs, mobile computers, game machines, PDAs, set top boxes, appliances, digital televisions and other devices using computer processors.”
So all that “central-brain-spaceship-super-online-only” talk seems to be true then. God help us all…
Read more at: http://pair.uspto.gov/ by searching for application number 09/816004.
“A computer architecture and programming model for high speed processing over broadband networks are provided. The architecture employs a consistent modular structure, a common computing module and uniform software cells. The common computing module includes a control processor, a plurality of processing units, a plurality of local memories from which the processing units process programs, a direct memory access controller and a shared main memory. A synchronized system and method for the coordinated reading and writing of data to and from the shared main memory by the processing units also are provided. A hardware sandbox structure is provided for security against the corruption of data among the programs being processed by the processing units. The uniform software cells contain both data and applications and are structured for processing by any of the processors of the network. Each software cell is uniquely identified on the network. A system and method for creating a dedicated pipeline for processing streaming data also are provided.”
Then in the summary of the invention section, gaming machines are specifically mentioned. “This common computing module has a consistent structure and preferably employs the same ISA. The members of the network can be, e.g., clients, servers, PCs, mobile computers, game machines, PDAs, set top boxes, appliances, digital televisions and other devices using computer processors.”
So all that “central-brain-spaceship-super-online-only” talk seems to be true then. God help us all…
Read more at: http://pair.uspto.gov/ by searching for application number 09/816004.
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