More Cell performance claims emerge

They are wasting time and $$$ with the anti-piracy. As much time as they spend trying to protect the system there is some engineer who is looking for a big payday. I believe every system has been hacked or pirated almost as soon as it comes out. Maybe the PSP will be the first to avoid it.

Yeah you're right, and furthermore.. oh hang on, I just need to change CD-Rs on my Gamecube.

Seriously though, whatever anyone says, Playstation owes part of it's success to piracy. Sure, it may have lost Sony money but it allowed a Playstation into more homes than any other console which helped build the brand. And it's the brand that really counts..

On a different note, is anyone else finding the concept of a Cell processor in every device slightly scary?

The main purpose of cell technology isn't about piracy...it's cutting down processing time and getting more jobs done at once. Now to go along with companies working on faster chips, people are taking faster chips in new directions to help them work together. It's a logical step to try to increase performance rather than simply looking for new ways to ramp up pure processer speed. Now, if it actually works or not is still a mystery of course. Lots of people will guess on the specs but no one will really know anything until there are some tech demos around and we see how well programmers are able to utilize this new hardware architecture.

If all this happens and it also happens to curtail some piracy or modchiping, then that's just one of the fringe benefits for them.

Piracy = Bad
Modchipping = Not necessarily bad

I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic here.

Apparently if you network a computer to a GC via the broadband adapter you can stream in games from your PC.

I recently read that each hardware Cell has its own exclusive fast access memory and in that is stored the data needed for the current running task that has been loaded from main (shared) memory. No other Cell can access that data from main memory during the life of the process (memory protection), but can request access to it if one CEll has a lock on memory that another cell needs it. This is at the descretion of the Cell that has a lock on the memory. I can see where the performance hit is gonna come - the cell will have to check the process requesting the memory to see if it's from a trusted application.

I think this is more about memory protection than piracy protection because once the process is done with the memory its open to shared access again, right?

if sweet brother Ken's hyperbolic comments from yesterweek are true with the power of cell hackers will be able to crack drm ciphers through brute force instead of scanning memory. they could all network cells together in some sort of world-wide cracktorrent

To say that the idea of CELL's in every appliance is scary is an understatment. Does any one actually have any real forsight around here? MS puts their OS on a cell phone and a video game console and the conspiracy theorists come out of the wood work like crazy. Sony spends probably Billions of dollars developing a chip that will go in every damn thing they make and no one bats an eye. "OH COOL!" you say. some people worry about anti piracy issues. no one seems at all bothered that they basically came out and said that your game will run better if you have your ps3 hooked up to a new sony tv, and sony dvd player, and sony surround sound system. Does anyoen think they wont try and push these things into PC's? Then your Computer and living room will hook up automatically without the need for extra software. So not only will you want to hook it up so you can stream videos to your livign room tv but everythign will run faster if it is hooked together. They are Trying to take a short cut and beat M$ to their goal of total digital domination.

Does anyone really think trying to program games so that they run faster on SONY tv's is a good thing? Wake up sheeple! They are distracting you with free tickets to a playoff game and then banging your wife and drinking your beer when you arent home! when you get back from the game and realize the locks have been changed you'll realize i was right.

Ok, so i am psycho... but I think i make some valid points!
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I follow LUPOS on this. I've seen this coming a while... ever since Intel said that's what they wanted to do, actually.

Thank goodness i'm not alone on this.

The idea of one software publisher working on tons of different hardware manufactures is kinda s**tty. The thought that one hardware manufacturer could monopolize all sectors and not require a software Dev. to do it is a much bleaker future. There is a reason Toshiba is on bored with thi sand its cause they know that if Sony gets the whoel thing to work they woudl well become the only game in town, PERIOD!
Hell the people at fridgidaire and maytag may have to watch their asses!

I don't think this is going to be a problem. I will buy a PS3 and use it with my non-Cell products. I doubt I will be buying anything else Cell. Trying to create a Cell home is difficult unless you are a millionaire with a need for all things Sony. For the average gamer/non-adult it will be extrmely difficult to attain more than one Cell device/year.

Am I the only one here who is getting less and less thrilled with system specs every four years? I want to know what the games are, not how much bigger the numbers have gotten.

There is a difference between opening up another harware platform and domineering the software market on the main one and trying to branch it into other markets.

There is no way that every TV in the world will run on a Cell. Let's face it, nobody will need that amount of processing in their TV untill broadcasters start transmitting in VRML!

There is no way that every stereo will use one either. DVD players? Have to wait until after Blu-Ray or HD-DVD since those standards are going to use MS codecs and they won't license them to a hardware platform they can't dominate with Windows.

IBM are going to put Cell processors into workstations, not Sony. However, they probably wont be running Windows. More than likely they'll be running a version of Linux and won't be targeted at the home market.

And on top of that, I can't see anybody who wants to sell games requiring a Cell-enabled TV to make their games work. How many games came out for the N64 that required the RAM pack? Or for the PS2 that required the hard drive? Required, not worked better with. Add-ons don't work with consoles, they never sell more games. Even Eye-Toy, the darling of the console peripheral market, has, what, five games that require it?


Nobody thinks thats a good idea, that nobody also applies to EA, Sega, Infogrames, Ubisoft, THQ and the rest. See above for examples of why this tactic won't work and probably never will.


You certainly raise a few interesting points, valid is another matter. :-)

The thing is now we have another architeture that has a chance of competing with Intel. PPC hasn't made many inroads, Alpha died off, MIPS is going to Dodo land.

Maybe Cell is the architecture to give Intel a kick up the arse and sort their s**t out. Drop backward compat, make MS handle that for windows and move forward with an architecture that will allow some growth and not just multi-coring of the older processors and upping the clock speed.

i would reply to each of your points individually but i feel this sums it up...



and thats from the article we are talkign about... interesting...

:)

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like the power pc?



you know there is such a thing as AMD... they do have a very very large market share... i don't see them macking any head way... the only reason sony is willign to put the cash into this that they are is because they thing in the long run they can rule us all... "one ring style"!

progress is progress... PCI express is progress, 64-bit is progress (all thought way long in the comming) we are makign natural progress... sony is trying to force a generational jump so that they can be the leaders of a new pack since they have no hope of joing the already existing packs.