Sony ushered in a new era in gaming with the PlayStation 3 console, first released in 2006. While the console offered high-level performance compared to its debut period, it owed this largely to the Cell processor. AMD CEO made statements about the processor developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba.
AMD CEO talks about the PlayStation 3 processor
In a recent interview, AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed her involvement in PlayStation 3 development. Su recalled that she was Director of Emerging Products at IBM in 2001. Accordingly, she was involved in the planning of the technically ambitious Cell processor.
The development process for PlayStation 3 began in 2001. IBM, Sony and Toshiba conducted a five-year R&D process for the next generation console processor. CEO Su claimed that some of the company’s decisions were ahead of their time. He said the Cell processor, which focuses on parallel computing, has achieved great things in multi-core performance.
The Cell featured a PowerPC core supported by eight processing elements. The processor’s innovative architecture brought many challenges for developers. It is even possible to say that there were optimization problems in the games published in the first years.
The PS3, which debuted at the same time as the Xbox 360, reached low sales figures due to its processor structure. However, after a few years of work, it is possible to say that it hosts graphically impressive games such as Red Dead Redemption and Uncharted 2.
AMD’s CEO admitted that the PS3 was Sony’s least successful console overall. However, he also believes that the Cell processor is a success.