According to the latest rumor mill, Sony is working on the PlayStation 4 (PS4), their next generation gaming console, which will not be using Sony’s Cell processor or any derivative of the chipset that powered the PlayStation 3 (PS3).
The Cell processor abandonment is being reported by Kotaku and their "industry sources", which also follows a rumor reported by Forbes, who claims Sony will use AMD graphics technology for the PS4 in place of the Cell’s reliance on rival Nvidia. Those sources, former AMD employees, have yet to be confirmed.
The ditching of the Cell architecture would thrill the many game developers who have struggled with the complex chipset. In short, the Cell processor was very difficult to make games for.
The Cell platform was the brainchild of PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, who has since left the company and will not be working on the PS4. He had hoped that the PlayStation 3 and a few other Sony electronic components equipped with Cell technology could integrate a new wave of intermingled consumer electronics in the home. The Cell never got off of the ground due to the Sony PS3’s slow acceptance (in part because of a steep six hundred price tag to start) in a market already dominated by the Microsoft Xbox 360 and a healthy competitor in the Nintendo Wii shortly thereafter.
With the departure of Kutaragi, the Cell follows suit leading many to speculate as to the new chipset that will be a part of a next generation gaming age that is eagerly anticipated by gamers. The AMD Fusion architecture, which puts CPU and GPU on the same chip could be part of a new wave of technology that will allow for Sony, game developers, and computer technology associates to work with a simpler and potentially more efficient chip architecture.
The creators of the next generation Unreal graphics engine have stated that the newest gaming systems will need to be at least ten times as powerful as the PS3 and Xbox 360 were. Discarding the Cell might be the first step along that path.
