PS3 = supercomputer at PC pricing ...

Status
Not open for further replies.
PoBoy

PoBoy

Innovator
PS3 offers supercomputer performance at PC pricing, iSuppli reveals

"With the PS3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC," ...
The combined materials and manufacturing cost of the PS3 is US$805.85 for the model equipped with a 20GB hard disk drive (HDD), and US$840.35 for the 60GB HDD version, according to iSuppli. This total doesn’t include additional costs for elements including the controller, cables and packaging.
iSuppli believes the console provides more processing power and capability than any consumer electronics device in history ... the PlayStation 3 is a great bargain, well worth its US$599 price and US$840.35 cost ...
"The reason why the PS3 is so costly to produce is because it has incredible processing power," "If someone had shown me the PS3 motherboard from afar without telling me what it was, I would have assumed it was for a network switch or an enterprise server."
The dual graphics processing units (GPUs) – the RSX Reality Synthesizer from Nvidia and the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer from Toshiba. The RSX Reality Synthesizer delivers cutting-edge high-definition graphics – while the Emotion Engine provides backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 (PS2) game titles.
The Cell Broadband Engine from IBM, which serves as the central processing unit of the PS3, provides the equivalent computing power of eight individual microprocessors. The Cell is what endows the PlayStation 3 with its supercomputer-like power, Rassweiler observed.
The use of four Samsung Electronics 512Mbit DRAMs that employ high-speed memory interface technology from Rambus. This marks the first use of the advanced XDR DRAM technology that iSuppli has detected. Samsung's memory represents 11% of PS3 costs. Samsung and Elpida Memory are dual sources for the XDR DRAM.
"To give an example of how cutting-edge the design is, in the entire history of the iSuppli teardown analysis team, we have seen only three semiconductors with 1,200 or more pins. The PS3 has three such semiconductors all by itself,†Rassweiler noted. "There is nothing cheap about the PS3 design. This is not an adapted PC design. Even beyond the major chips in the PlayStation 3, the other components seem to also be expensive and somewhat exotic."
Rassweiler cited the PS3's inclusion of a power supply that packs a whopping 400-watts – yet uses a very compact, low-profile design. At US$37.50, this power supply costs about twice as much as an average unit found in a PC.
Sony's Blu-Ray DVD read only optical device in the PS3 has dual purposes: up-converting the game console's output to high-definition resolution, and allowing viewers to watch high-definition movies using the console
The PS3's HDD is a 2.5-inch, 20GB capacity drive supplied by Seagate Technology. The reason a HDD is included in the PS3 is to store the mathematical modeling based on physics for the motion and impact of the various game objects. The DVD media produces the objects that are manipulated by the game player and for each scenario; the most realistic situations are replicated using the Cell processor and mathematical models

Rank Company Percent of Total Cost
1 Nvidia 12%
2 Toshiba 11%
3 Samsung 11%
4 IBM 11%
Click to expand...
 
PS3 may have a good hardware but it doesn't even come close to supercomputers.Else all of them would have been bought by iranians and redirected to nuke research!!:tongue: :tongue:

In reality any high end computer is much more powerful than them.
 
PS3 may have a good hardware but it isn't even close to supercomputers
Click to expand...

Dude, that one point has a bit of truth in it. It isn't a supercomputer, but it has enough Vector processing capabilities to seriously kick ass. Its major drawback is slow double precision operation.

Another thing that will hit them in the balls - most algorithms usually have a logarithmic division, ie divide by half repeatedly. Sometimes there might be a controller too. The cell architecture has the single PPC core at centre (good), but the PS3 has 7 (and not 8) SPEs which means people are not gonna be able to use them equally. The PPC will have to serve as a PE which would be ok, except that it would be assymetrical as it wouldn't be able to use SPEs for its own work.
 
Not possible to install Windows on a PS3, right ?

IMO it's the s/w, not the h/w, that will make or break the PS3 ( or any other console ). Comments please.
 
Its basically a high-end linux OS compatible computer with a blu-ray player. Getting this all in a PC is cost around 1500$ minimum (1000$ just for a blu-ray standalone). Though, even Ps2 has a linux available for it as well, Ps3 is the same but muich better, like a typical upgrade from P3 to P4.

And the Blu-Ray in the Ps3 is on par with standalones according to a review done by Yahoo.com

Sony knows Ps3 will be the major carrier and promoter of Blu-Ray and it has equipped it with a high end one.

So when they say you Ps3 is a great bargain, its an understatement, its the best bargain you can get. If you're thinking of getting a Blu-Ray player and you're not a gamer at all, Ps3 will be the cheapest one available in the market.
 
Well if not a supercomputer then atleast something close to it.It has 7 core for god sake, if thats not supercomputer like then I dont know what is..
 
A C2D with dual 7950X2 has typically 6 cores, yet its not a supercomp, is it :P
A C2Q with dual 7950X2 wud have 8 cores :P
 
The Supercomputing comes from the fact that the 7 extra cores are extremely fast FPUs (in a stripped down sense. They are more than that, but let's not get into it). Don't even try to compare a gfx card with them, in terms of raw floating point ops. gfx cards have other things going for them. Merely the fact that there are seven more cores doesn't make it a supercomputer.

I think of this more as a high end workstation than a supercomputer. The original specs did say that you could make a supercomputer, if you could hook up 32 of these. Hey, maybe my prof will buy 32 PS3s instead of a fat 8 core opteron.... heheh. I don't think so.
 
Seriously! As if anyone's even considering buying a PS3 for operations involving heavy floating point double precision numbers. Let's concentrate on what the PS3 is really about... that which it's failing at right now.
 
Yeah, well the whole thing is that the Cell as a whole will suffer from the fact that double precision floating point isn't boosted as much as single precision is. They made that choice considering that single precision is enough for many purposes (true) like graphics (I mean high end visulaization workstations, medical systems) etc., but there are a lot of simulations where double precision has to be used.

Anyway, the PS3 can serve (in terms of processing power) the purpose of workstations several times its cost, but it is not a supercomputer.
 
Ck Nish said:
Seriously! As if anyone's even considering buying a PS3 for operations involving heavy floating point double precision numbers. Let's concentrate on what the PS3 is really about... that which it's failing at right now.
Click to expand...

xbox / nintendo fanboy talk?
 
Here in the real world, we like to call what I just previously said "truth" and "facts".:) You also seem to be having trouble discerning whether I'm a Ninty or Microsoft fanboy which means you're just speaking out of your arse which I can only hope is much more ignorant than your mental faculties.
 
Lets not try to judge anything now, I've been saying this for god knows how long.

Only fair comparisons can be done when Ps3 has had a year in the market with a blockbuster title like Devil May Cry or Metal Gear in the market.

X360 should have its Halo3 by then too.
 
I'm judging both consoles by their launch and in spite of starting a full year later, the PS3 managed to do the impossible by having a worser collection of launch titles than the X360.
 
That's true apparently. Ps consoles aren't known for their launch titles. Even Ps2 had only SSX as a decent enough title at launch compared to what was available on the Dreamcast at the time.
 
Ck Nish said:
I'm judging both consoles by their launch and in spite of starting a full year later, the PS3 managed to do the impossible by having a worser collection of launch titles than the X360.
Click to expand...

so u mean to say that u judge the console by just its launch titles? u should wait for sometime n see. & as far as u being a nintendo or ms or sony fan. either of the 3. how would i know that.

yes titles are very limited now but i am sure we will see many new 1's come in december especially during the christmas period.

since the ps3 is released now more companies will be keen on getting their titles out asap.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom