PS3 to use distributed computing
SCE sketches out its plans for the next next-generation console
Sony Computer Entertainment is focusing its PlayStation 3 research efforts on distributed computing, according to CTO Shin'ichi Okamoto. Using distributed computing would allow PS3 to spread the burden of computational tasks across networked computers. Distributed computing is best known for its application in worldwide bug hunts like SETI@Home. At the ongoing Game Developers Conference (GDC), Okamoto-san told the huddled industry masses that game developers would like to have a thousand times the processing power of PlayStation 2, but that there is no way to achieve that purely through hardware advances. Referring to Moore's Law (truism which argues that semiconductor power doubles roughly every 18 months), he told onlookers that Sony "can't wait 20 years" to achieve its goals. "Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology," he was also reported as saying. Sony is working with IBM to apply the latter's "grid computing" research to the next PlayStation console.