After Sony announced that they’re working on the Next Generation PlayStation console, there has been a few tidbits being released about the PlayStation 5. The first information is coming from AMD’s C.E.O., Lisa Su, in an interview with CNBC. Sony has already confirmed that AMD is developing a few chips for Sony.
For those who are not aware, AMD acquired ATI in 2006 for a total of 5.4 billion USD. This means that AMD can develop not just a processor, they can also create graphics chips. AMD as a company makes processors of all kinds, including graphics cards and chips. ATi was competing against AMD in the graphics race. So, therefore, PlayStation 5 will house both CPU, and GPU from AMD. Sony did not specify anyone else in their initial announcement that they’re working on PS5.
It’s unlikely that Sony will work with Nvidia for the foreseeable future, mostly because of their reputation during PS3’s heyday, and today. For those unaware: Sony and Nvidia did work with each other. Nvidia’s RSX was a modified version of 7800GTX, and is a G70/G71 hybrid. Sony did not work with Nvidia during development of PS4.
Going back to the interview, Lisa said “What we have done with Sony is really architect something for their application, for their special sauce.” Nobody has any idea of what this “secret sauce.” But Lisa continued saying “It’s a great honor for us. We’re really excited about what the next generation PlayStation will do.” She seems a little humble there, but I digress.
She also subtly teased that PS5 is being released 2020, explaining “As we see, the semi-custom business at this point, we still believe that it’s going to be down substantially in 2019, let’s call it approximately 20%-plus. And then as we go into 2020, without talking about any specific customer, we believe that semi-custom will return to a growth business for us in 2020 and beyond.”
As far as their Hard Drive is concerned, in the initial announcement by Mark Cerny, he made it crystal clear that their hard drive has made load times for Spiderman a breeze. Sony did an interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine, which was published in May. In that interview, Sony explained a little more about the hard drive, saying “An ultra-high-speed SSD is the key to our next generation.”
Sony expanded on that quote by continuing “Our vision is to make loading screens a thing of the past, enabling creators to build new and unique gameplay experiences.” A faster Hard Drive doesn’t remove loading screens, just that it makes reading files and executing assets quicker, effectively making loading times faster. And this is not exclusive to loading times, it also covers the act of installing games.
