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That's an interesting question. Will either Sony or MS break backwards compatibility by going away from x86 again in the future? Definitely not with the next console generation.
On the CPU side, MS does have good x86-on-arm emulation from their brand new windows arm so it's conceivable. Not sure how bad it would be on the GPU side.
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Microsoft maintained backwards compatibility across Intel+Nvidia, IBM+ATI, and AMD+AMD so it's possible. Sony hasn't invested as much in compatibility, instead just keeping the same architecture for PS4/5.
Sony has historically invested a lot into backwards compatibility, going as far as shipping the previous gen's GPU and/or CPU with the PS2, initial PS3 models, and the PS Vita. PS3 compatibility on the PS4 was notably absent, though.
They could include a software emulator at least for the PS2 (not PS1 because afaik the drive in the PS5 does not read CDs) on the PS5 and let people use old discs, but they don't and instead sell again old games packaged with the emulator in their online store.
> Intel and AMD were the final two contenders in the bidding process for the contract. That's an interesting question. Will either Sony or MS break backwards compatibility by going away from x86 again in the future? Definitely not with the next console generation. On the CPU side, MS does have good x86-on-arm emulation from their brand new windows arm so it's conceivable. Not sure how bad it would be on the GPU side.
I'm wondering if they would still aim for a single chip when moving to ARM. AMD (and Intel) don't make ARM chips. Nvidia does, and is probably what the next Switch will use. Qualcomm does have proper DX12 support on Windows ARM, but who knows how that'll scale since they make mostly mobile GPUs. Intel had similar problems scaling their iGPUs for Arc.
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I'm surprised they didn't learn the same lesson from the P4/NetBurst vs. Pentium M/Banias fiasco: the smaller but scalable architecture somehow always wins – first in power/perf, and then more generally. (Actually, I need to check the timing of whether the "oh shit" moment for NetBurst happened before or after the development of the iPhone...)
The Core line (2006), when they started to swing back away from “make fast furnaces” was just one year before the iPhone (2007). So the NetBurst debacle had already happened. But that was desktops. I wonder if they really realized how much a problem that was in mobile. I also think I remember a discussion of that quote from a few weeks ago where someone said the real problem for Intel in the iPhone wasn’t heat but po…
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I mean, the PS4 didn't play PS3 games and that didn't hurt it any. Backwards compatibility is nice but it isn't the only factor.
The first year of PS4 was pretty dry because of the lack of BC; It really helped that the competition was the Xbox One, which was less appealing for a lot of reasons
While with the PS5 I got one as soon as I could (that still took more than a year since launch, but for chip shortage reasons) because I knew I could simply replace the PS4 with it under the TV and carry on.
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Intel has Battlemage [1]. Presumably that would be the basis of the console APU. Their iGPU performance is actually getting good now. [2] [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/embargo-no-p... [2] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/lunar-lake-i...
Intel’s absolute best integrated GPU being roughly comparable to a lower end model from the competition is not “getting good.”
If we are talking foundry, Intel could still manufacture amd chips in their own fab instead of tsmc. Given that 18A is good... This would be strange, but it would show Intel will do what it takes.
They have to do that to stay in fab business. Their design business is gonna be sold out I think, like HP/Agilent.
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The comment above is elaborating on x86 micro-architecture, the differences between how the CPU handles x86 instructions specifically. The overall system architecture is different between PC, which has discrete memory systems for the CPU and GPU, and a very long pathway between GPU memory and system/CPU memory, versus today's consoles which have unified memory for CPU+GPU, and optimized pathways for loading from pers…
> Usually PC ports of console native games re-implement the rendering engine using the PC graphics APIs like DirectX or Vulkan. The re-implementation is probably less efficient and less tuned. This was true 25 years ago when in house bespoke game engines were more common and consoles weren't basically PCs. In 2024, I highly doubt many cross-platform games are ported at all - its just a different target in Unreal/Unit…
Horizon is running in Guerilla Games' in-house Decima Engine, which is PS5-only for production builds. Ports are handled by nixxes.
Kojima games previously used Konami's in-house Fox Engine, again primarily designed for playstation. Since Kojima left Konami, Kojima games use the Decima Engine as well.
No one appears to have mentioned the important meta game going on: Intel bidding as a credible alternative supplier. For Intel, by bidding they get to undercut AMD's profits. For Sony, they get a credible alternative which they can pretend would be a viable choice. Thus forcing a slightly better deal from AMD. We saw similar articles related to the Switch 2. That time it was AMD acting as spoiler to Nvidia. Nvidia re…
I’m pretty sure PS5 runs x86 and Vulcan. Both are standardized. That’s why PS5 games can be easily ported to PCs running Intel and Nvidia. So I’m not buying that going Intel would lose backwards compatibility.
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I think GP means dead as in there'll be no more design efforts targeted at it.
Right. It will live on. I love it, plan to buy a Pro. But for their hardware engineers they’re likely done and moved on.
However, most games nowadays can't even take full advantage of PS 5 and XBox Series X, so it is quite questionable what they will do with next generation.
Switch might be oldie hardware, however it clearly shows how well a console can sell when more attention is given to gameplay than polygons per second.