PS3 could run at 120 fps

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has claimed that the PlayStation 3 will run games at an unprecedented (and perhaps rather pointless) 120 frames per second.

According to Japanese news service Nikkei BP, Kutaragi's comments were made at the Tokyo International Digital Conference last week where he turned up to extol the virtues of the PS3 and its Cell processor. And, of course, to make his rather astonishing claim.

It's particularly interesting because there isn't actually a TV in the world which can refresh the screen at a rate of 120 times per second. Kutaragi acknowledged this, but said he wants the PS3 to be ready to make the best of the technology once it finally arrives.

Kutaragi pointed out that the Cell chip can decode more than ten HDTV channels at a time, and can be used for rotating and zooming effects. He also discussed some of the different ways in which it could be used - to display actual-size newspaper pages, for example, to show more than one HD channel on the screen at a time, or for video conferences.

Kutaragi also explained how a processing power of 25.6 teraflops could be achieved - by creating a Cell cluster server with 16 units, each made up of eight Cell processors running at 2.5Ghz.