Hurry Up - Psp2 On The Way

[Jourdy288]

Oh no watch out, here come the guys from Freescale as well :blink:

http://www.slashgear.com/freescale-smartbook-concepts-take-on-mobile-gaming-ipad-more-1986063/

The main problem with this device is that I can't imagine Matt Farrell pulling it out of his man-purse and hacking into satellites with it. Which is the ultimate measure of a hand-held computational device.

This looks more like something you'd see school kids playing gran tourismo on in the subway...

That looks like a render... Don't ask how I can tell :lol:
But if it were real, I'd probably want analog sticks instead of d-pads, and the whole thing should be larger by a couple inches so they can increase the size of the keyboard. This way, it's much easier to use.

 

[MDave]

I'd rather believe what these guys have said about it: http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/10/16/exclusive-sony-psp2-arriving-in-20102c-features-powervr-sgx543-graphics.aspx

Somehow, I don't think a 4 core Cell processor sounds cheap, nor power efficient for a handheld console.

 

[paulguy]

Sounds like the next gamegear! Needs an external rechargeable battery pack to be useful and even then only lasts a couple hours.

 

[Exophase]

I think with IBM having completely dumped Cell this sounds a little unlikely.

 

[danielliu88888]

this is sounding like ~1 hours worth of battery life

 

[j6cubic]

I think with IBM having completely dumped Cell this sounds a little unlikely.

IBM has aborted the development of a 32-SPE Cell. Current Cell designs are still being produced and they're still working on new ones.

this is sounding like ~1 hours worth of battery life

Not neccessarily. Assuming that they do indeed use a Cell (which, as has been correctly noted, is not neccessarily true) they'd use a scaled-down version that runs at a slower speed and voltage than the regular version, most likely also using a smaller manufacturing process, potentially 32nm (which IBM has the tech for). They could possibly get something sensible out of a mobile Cell variant.

Otherwise they'll probably use either another MIPS chip or an ARM, both of which are suitable for mobile use.

 

[Alpha2]

I really see this rumor as a damned if they do damned if they dont situation;
-if they do release it and it's a non UMD device they're going further down fail road of the PSPgo.
-if they don't then the PSP continues to be a device that's hacked and not making them money.

Either way fails to put any more cash in their pocket than they're already getting. The better of the two evils is to continue on the current path for a while at least until they have a firm idea what to do or until they see what the "3DS" is like, because producing a new hardware device just as the PS3 has started becoming a profitable hardware device will hurt their bottom line, and take steam away from the product launch of the Move motion controller. And the other part of this is since I dont see any other website picking up on this rumor, it's likely that it might just be bunk anyway. Heck rumors've been going around about the supposed specs for the PS4 for a year now and that's not expected before 2014. Sure they're probably working on a new PSP but they ALWAYS work on new hardware years in advance of when they actually release it. That doesn't mean it's coming tomorrow or even for the next E3, remember even after the leak of the PS3 slim they didnt release the thing for almost a year and that was only because they needed something to shock the market in to paying attention to the PS3, the PSP on the other hand has actually picked up recently in sales due to new software regardless of the piracy.

But as I've always said the whole PSP issue is moot to a community like this as it's not an open device and fighting with the platform holder hinders development of the applications for it.

 

[hch]

4 core cell? why would they revive an already dead architecture just to cut the number of cores in half?

you know, the cell is not your run-of-the-mill SMP architecture. if 4 SPUs are missing, the code has to be *entireley rewritten* on the assembler level. so ther is exactly no synergy with the PS3.

if they really did that sony is an order of magnitude more mad than i thought they were.

 

[Fishbong]

you know, the cell is not your run-of-the-mill SMP architecture. if 4 SPUs are missing, the code has to be *entireley rewritten* on the assembler level. so ther is exactly no synergy with the PS3

I don't think anyone even considered the possibilty of PS3 compatible binaries for the PSP2. Even if the technical problems (i doubt it will have a Bluray drive) can be solved, there's still a huge difference in performance.

I mean excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but even if it were possible, Sony most definitely would want you to buy new games, not reuse old ones. And can you even imagine playing a sixaxis game on ha handheld? In public, even?

 

[chame]

you know, the cell is not your run-of-the-mill SMP architecture. if 4 SPUs are missing, the code has to be *entireley rewritten* on the assembler level. so ther is exactly no synergy with the PS3.

I dont understand that. threads are send to the cores managed by the OS. PS3 doesnt use 8 cores, at least at the begining, and because technical problems, they disabled 1 core. and the OS takes a whole 1 core for itself.
I read about this several years ago, so if something changed please dont kill me

sony is trying to fix the UMD and pspgo fiasco. more powerful hardware is not needed (look nintendo), psp games look great, and on that small screen its enought. just keep the psp HW without the UMD and use the space for bigger battery

pd: maybe add a right analog stick

 

[Caine]

I dont understand that. threads are send to the cores managed by the OS.

Nope, programmers have to do that manually. Only the powerPC core runs an OS, all other processors have to be programmed individually and receive data from/send data to the powerPC.

 

[hch]

you know, the cell is not your run-of-the-mill SMP architecture. if 4 SPUs are missing, the code has to be *entireley rewritten* on the assembler level. so ther is exactly no synergy with the PS3

I don't think anyone even considered the possibilty of PS3 compatible binaries for the PSP2. Even if the technical problems (i doubt it will have a Bluray drive) can be solved, there's still a huge difference in performance.

I mean excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but even if it were possible, Sony most definitely would want you to buy new games, not reuse old ones. And can you even imagine playing a sixaxis game on ha handheld? In public, even?

i did not think about full binary compatibility. but if i am not gravely mistaken, a 4-core cell will be an additional target architecture with very target specific optimizations necessary. i would have thought that using a cell would at least relieve the developers of some of the porting problems. i don't see any other reason for using a cell - even more so in a handheld.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Sony most definitely would want you to buy new games, not reuse old ones.

That really flared my temper when Sony started spouting bullpap about ps2 compatibility being excluded from later ps3 systems because they deemed that we, the consumer, wanted to focus on new software. The real reason was that they were afraid that people would buy less of the overpriced tat that they churn out in favour of buying second hand ps2 games. It might have sounded convincing if at the same time they weren't also supporting ps1 compatibility and selling ps1 games on the playstation network, is that moving away from old games?

 

[SomeGuy99]

When you consider all the restrictive security measures, Cell is the right name for it.
B)

 

[gama]

Well, i don't know if the psp2 will use a Cell processor, but i'm pretty sure it will be powerfull enough to emulate the PS2, or it will be designed to achieve that.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

*Fixed

When you consider all the restrictive security measures...

'cell' is the right name for it

YEEEEEEAH

 

[paulguy]

Well, i don't know if the psp2 will use a Cell processor, but i'm pretty sure it will be powerfull enough to emulate the PS2, or it will be designed to achieve that.

I wouldn't expect emulation but maybe processing/graphics power similar to PS2, though I'd expect maybe twice as powerful in both areas.

What's everyone's obsession with emulating a PS2 on a handheld? It _barely_ works on high end PCs NOW, give it a few years and give the topic a damn rest!

 

[Exophase]

IBM has aborted the development of a 32-SPE Cell. Current Cell designs are still being produced and they're still working on new ones.

No longer scaling it is as good as having dumped it. The idea of transitioning it to a handheld chip is a joke. For a gaming handheld a 4-way Cell would be especially silly. If Sony does this then they deserve the next round of thrashing by Nintendo that they'll probably get regardless.

 

[j6cubic]

They could still scale more slowly or in a different direction. Chip design isn't always about following the most obvious path. I guess we'll see what they make out of Cell when the next designs come out.

 

[laurencevde]

The general Cell-architecture still allows you to pack a lot of computing-power in a small package. Those SPU's are pretty transistor-efficient...
Furthermore, Cell has had several years of development since PS3, and I'm sure most issues with the general architecture should've been fixed by now.
So putting a "Cell" into a handheld gaming-device isn't even such a crazy idea. Sony will also need a machine that's better than the 3DS in some respect...

If I were Sony, I'd take the upgraded Cell-architecture, and swap out the Power-core for a MIPS, so that it can run PSP1-games, so that it can actually be sold...

As for storage: more processing-power means more, bigger content to use it, which means bigger games. 5-10GB for good, large, games seems reasonable. However, that does require individual storage per game, as a built-in flash-drive that can hold more than a couple of those games will simply be too expensive...
Flash-carts are an option, at €10,- for 8GB (hopefully, by the time PSP2 gets big), but that also does add significant costs to the individual games. Would work fine for smaller games though.
So, optical storage is simply still the cheapest solution for bigger games...
Also, the average US internet-connection (still the biggest and most vocal single market) is only ~4Mbit/s, so that's going to take ~6 hours just to download a 10GB-game. As that's clearly unacceptable, download-only's not going to work...

But, well, those would be logical, realistic, decisions, and Sony has lost all sense of logic and realism anyways...