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http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?p=2404145#post2404145In my Internet travels on a quest to uncover the mysteries of the PS3, I stumbled onto this Thread. First posted in January of 2006 at Sony Playstation Underground Forums!
I had been wondering how Sony could claim the Same RSX/Cell combo that's in the PS3 could be capable of pushing out 4K (that's 4 x 1080P for a total of 8,847,360 pixels). A pair of 7950GPU in SLI can push 4K to a screen (that's 4 x 7800 cores), but no single GPU today can do that. Except according to Sony the Cell/RSX combo in their Computer Board. With the same exact FLEXiO, FLEXPHASE, RSX (1200+pin count), Cell BE (1200+pin count), Super Companion Chip (1200+pin count), HDMI (Computer Board has two HDMI 1.3 ports), ect, that's in our PS3's.
Rambus themselves claim 76GB/s Bandwidth (not the erroneous 35?GB/s) for FLEXiO/FLEXPHASE. That programmable clock bus is pushed by the Ramdacs seen below the Cell and RSX at up to 8GHz speeds. That's from their own PDF!
I had recently watched and re-watched the E3 2005 video with Jsun Huang of Nvidia giving a presentation on the RSX. While he continually kept referring to the 7800 specs and abilities, he also kept putting in the facts as to what the RSX was capable of. Sometime it seems over the last few years both Nvidia and Sony have been dancing around the actual specs of RSX and avoiding actually saying just what it is or what kind of goodies are in it. Is it a single or dual core more like a 7950 GPU? Could it possibly be a kinda of "Cell BE" style Hybrid? From the links I've included, we have many other people on the web (and even in these forums), who have wondered the same thing.
We still don't know what it is and I'm not claiming I know what it is. But with this statement by Jsun Huang at 2005 E3, it leaves no doubt that it is some kind of multi-core and more than likely resembles the "Mini Render Farm" on a chip that the Cell has been described as:
Quote:
Jsun Huang Quote: "We've incorporated a Farm of Programable Shading Processors, so that each and every single pixel will be computed in Real Time"!
So to me (this is just my interpretation of from the video and a Magazine Interview article in OPM), the RSX seems to be a Cell Style Hybrid that seems to best complement the Cell architecture itself and at the same time cuts the cost of R & D for a all new GPU as in the Xenos. Meaning a base G70 core taking the place of the PPC core as the PPE and some kind of Specialized Shader cores taking the place of the SPE's on the RSX!
Why would this make sense? Well as most of you know Sony originally intended to use two Cell BE chips in the PS3. The drawbacks to this approach are that not only do you have Developers with a new style PPC based chip in the Cell to learn and transition to, but also an entirely different approach to the GPU as well. I think that Sony realized that this was too much at one time to throw at the Devs. So they made it so they had a recognizable form of CPU in the PPE/PPC main core, allowing them to be gradually weened off what was meant to be a controller core w/ the SPE's doing the heavy lifting.
Then replacing the PPC/PPE with the G70 core to function as the RSX controller chip and having the Farm (as Jsun Huang put it) of Programable Shading Processor cores to do the heavy lifting on RSX. This compliments the Cell BE and gives Developers a recognizable Cg programmable base in which to work from until cores are activated via firmware upgrades in the future. With 4 to 6 of these cores you have something that resembles the picture below found on Underground forums:
Note: This is not from Nvidia or Sony and is not meant to accurately reflect what the RSX is or how it is constructed. It's just someone's representation of what it could be like, as I understand it!
This is the Forum Link where I found this. Where you'll also find a OPM Jsun Huang interview!
http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...sage.id=232202
From what I perceive reading through this forum thread, this kind of Multi-core GPU would be ideal for developing games using more Ray Tracing (as cores were activated) along with the fact that the Cell is excellent at generating procedural graphics content as well. Which is evidenced by these Benchmarks with the PS3 generating the ProFX's "Bayou Demo" in 1.2 seconds, as compared to a PC w/Nvidia 8800 GPU generating the same Demo in 5 seconds. The Xbox 360 with Xenos generates the same Demo in 10 seconds. Then we have the ability of as Huang stated: "...so that each and every single pixel will be computed in Real Time" on the PS3! !
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These are screen shots I took in May of last year, while downloading a demo version of their ProFX Engine and Tools. The one above proves Sony is/was actively using their tools in their Middleware. It also proves that PS3 is using their tools to generate 4D content. The screens below, prove that the PS3 is the absolute best platform to run Procedurally Generated Content!
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OK! I want to shorten this up, so I will add more links tomorrow, including the Original Jsun Huang OPM Interview, the E3 2005 videos, and other pertinent data that can help us pin down just what could be in the RSX/Cell that could make it upgradable, capable of eventually rendering 4K and the fact that both Sony and Nvidia's boss claim the PS3's RSX is capable of nearly 2 Trillion calculations per second (2 TFLOPS), as stated here:
In "Higher Definition" video, Sony says, Quote: "the RSX or Reality Synthesizer that can perform nearly 2 trillion calculations per second" (that's unequivocally 2TFLOPS by itself). The only way for that to be possible is with this statement where he also confirmed the RSX was capable of nearly 2 TFLOPS!
"We've incorporated a Farm of Programable Shading Processors, so that each and every single pixel will be computed in Real Time"!
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to add valid information that may collaborate the Multi-core Cell-like RSX set forth here. Please if you want to argue or compare RSX to Xenos, this isn't the thread and you need to go start your own. If you want to dispute Huang's statement above and it's meaning go right ahead!!!
Some of the replies are also interesting.
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