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Exclusive: A Deeper Look at the PlayStation 5 (archive)
Sony skipped games show E3 this year, a void during which Microsoft unveiled details about its own next-gen console, a successor to the Xbox One referred to only as Project Scarlett. Like the PS5, Scarlett will boast a CPU based on AMD's Ryzen line and a GPU based on its Navi family; like the PS5, it will ditch the spinning hard drive for a solid-state drive. Now, though, in a conference room at Sony's US headquarters, [Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan] and system architect Mark Cerny are eager to share specifics.
Before they do, Cerny wants to clarify something. When we last discussed the forthcoming console, he spoke about its ability to support ray-tracing, a technique that can enable complex lighting and sound effects in 3D environments. Given the many questions he's received since, he fears he may have been ambiguous about how the PS5 would accomplish this—and confirms that it's not a software-level fix, which some had feared. "There is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware," he says, "which I believe is the statement that people were looking for." (A belief born out by my own Twitter mentions, which for a couple of weeks in April made a graphics-rendering technique seem like the only thing the internet had ever cared about.)
Sony confirms the PlayStation 5 is coming in 2020, reveals new hardware details
[Since] games are getting quite large (Red Dead Redemption 2 took up nearly 100GB; The Elder Scrolls Online is even larger), the PlayStation 5 will use 100GB optical discs. It will support the 4K Blu-ray disc format.
Previously: Sony's Next PlayStation Will Include an AMD Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU
Microsoft, Sony Partner on Streaming Games, Chips and AI
Microsoft Announces New Xbox Console and xCloud Streaming Game Service
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:00PM (4 children)
Ultra HD Blu-Ray Specification Completed [soylentnews.org]
4K gave the optical disc possibly its last breath of life, with mainstream 66 GB and 100 GB discs, from 25-50 GB (up to 128 GB BDXL discs had been available for years prior).
There have long been promises of 1 TB or larger discs. Archival Disc [wikipedia.org] was finally announced a few years ago, but if it even exists, you won't find it at the Walmart.
There's a possibility that a mainstreaming of 8K would lead to another consumer Blu-ray disc format at a larger size, perhaps matching the smallest Archival Disc at 300 GB. But in a world of streaming, 1 terabyte microSD cards and such, it's hard to see it happening.
What optical really needs to shine again are Superman 5D holographic crystal discs [soylentnews.org]. 1-6 terabytes per disc is not sufficient. It should be at least hundreds or thousands of terabytes per disc. Make it relatively cheap and resilient, and you have something that companies and individuals will love, even if it can be difficult to fill (assuming it is not rewriteable).
As for the PlayStation 5, you can pretty much count on a future Slim/Pro variant removing the optical drive, again, in about 3 years.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:19PM (3 children)
1-6 TB per disc seems pretty much the perfect size. It's just about exactly right to make a complete backup of a hard drive, and as long as the discs cost less than the hard drives do, it could be a reasonable archival format.
The real problem with these discs is that consumers will just store stuff on SD cards (until they bit rot and lose all their data), then external mechanical drives after they learn their lesson about the reliability of flash. Enterprises that need really large amounts of cold storage will be using tape. Everyone in the middle will use the cloud (which mostly still means mechanical hard drives or tape, but almost certainly not optical discs). There's not going to be that much demand for them, especially given that consumer-writable optical discs also tend to have lifetimes of only perhaps ten years.
But for the Playstation, having an optical drive will make lots of people happy. Gamestop gets to stay in business for at least a little while, customers that want to resell their games will be happy, and it's an advantage over Microsoft, who probably won't put any drive at all in the next XBox. That sort of perceived advantage can sell a lot of game consoles even if most people don't end up actually using the drive all that often.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:41PM (2 children)
A decisive increase in capacity would set a new optical/holographic format apart from the crowd.
1-6 TB per disc doesn't approach single tapes, as LTO [wikipedia.org] has a clear roadmap for reaching over 100 TB per tape, and those capacities have been demoed [soylentnews.org].
The biggest hard drives are now 16-20 TB, with 24 TB and larger coming real soon now. 8-10 TB HDDs for consumers are easy to find at reasonable prices. $160 for 10 TB. A rewriteable HDD would arguably be more useful to consumers, and might last 10 years.
Typical blank 25-50 GB Blu-ray disc prices are far from great on $/GB. If there was a new 1 TB disc sold in 5-packs, would it beat external HDDs on $/TB? 100-1000 TB discs might be better positioned to do so.
On the NAND front, a non-volatile post-NAND technology with better endurance could really shake things up. But stuff like Crossbar RRAM have been vaporware and 3D XPoint is just a tier stuck in between DRAM and NAND, not a replacement.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:10PM (1 child)
But with LTO tape drive you have a steep initial price. Second hand can be a good alternative if the drive is in good condition. New can be from 1800 - 2000 dollars, and add the SAS controller and cables.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:58PM
I don't disagree, although you could also see high initial prices for a new format optical drive.
My point is that getting past 100 TB opens up opportunities. HDDs could eventually hit 100 TB but it could take up to 10-15 years, although Seagate claims 2025 [tomshardware.com] using bit-patterned media with HAMR. Tape is hitting 100 TB but a new 100+ TB 120mm wide optical disc format could potentially be much denser. It is easy to make a 100 TB SSD, but it's going to cost at least $5,000-10,000, for now.
Instead of making a 120mm wide disc for compatibility with CD/DVD/Blu-ray, maybe it could be stacked like hard drive platters and put into an external enclosure.
By the way, I mentioned 6 TB because that was a supposed capacity target of the vaporware Holographic Versatile Disc [wikipedia.org]. Also close to this thing [wikipedia.org] (never heard of it until now).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]