Book Claims IBM Research for Sony's Cell Processor Directly Benefitted Microsoft in Console Race
"The Race for a New Game Machine," by IBM engineers David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, details how research conducted for Sony's Cell processor--used in the PlayStation 3--ended up directly benefiting the development of Micorosft's Xbox 360 chip.
The Journal summarizes:
All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony's primary videogame-console competitor. The result was that Sony's R&D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it.The article notes that while both chip designs were shipped off to manufacturing on time, a problem with production caused Microsoft to receive its chips first, allowing Microsoft to beat Sony to the market with the Xbox 360.Mr. Shippy and Ms. Phipps detail the resulting absurdity: IBM employees hiding their work from Sony and Toshiba engineers in the cubicles next to them; the Xbox chip being tested a few floors above the Cell design teams. Mr. Shippy says that he felt "contaminated" as he sat down with the Microsoft engineers, helping them to sketch out their architectural requirements with lessons learned from his earlier work on Playstation.
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Mad_Doggie
replyWell, that's gay.
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Wifi, HDD, and bluray come standard on every PS3 model. If you don't want/need those features just buy a $200 xbox. At $400 the PS3 may not be affordable for a lot of people, but the old adage is true: you get what you pay for.
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In this case, slow wi-fi and a disc format that isn't going to supplant DVD. They did an excellent job, however, with allowing users to switch out HDDs with one of their choosing, as well as allowing a surprising amount of user control over the actual system. I'm still pissed at MS for how locked-down they have the hardware on the 360 as compared to the PS3.
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For a technology that "isn't going to supplant DVD", it sure seems to be following a similar adoption curve, despite facing many obstacles DVD did not. I don't think it is going to be as successful as DVD was, but I don't see any other attempt doing even half as good as Blu-ray at gaining on DVD...do you?
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Yeah, I expect Sony to go to school with a couple of sawed-off shotguns, dressed in a trench coat, and start blazing away any day now.
"I wanted you to like me SO MUCH!!" -
How exactly are they misunderstood? I don't quite get that statement. If anything, they were too cocky going into this generation (which, given the blockbuster success of the PS1 and PS2, is understandable) and failed to understand that they still had to sell people on their gaming system as a gaming system, instead of trying to market it as an all-singing all-dancing home entertainment center.
When your primary goal with releasing a console is to have your particular disc format win and you fail to secure deals for excellent gaming content to back it up, you have to expect that a lot of people will be very turned off. Hopefully they get their act together for the PS4 and release a kick-ass system with a great line-up, not to mention stop insulting the intelligence of their consumers.
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