Ben-DutkaIt still seems way too early to be talking about the PlayStation 4 and yet, rumored news continues to pop up everywhere.
The latest is big, if it proves true: according to European source PS3Clan , it seems SCEI "has officially chosen" the technical setup for their next PlayStation iteration, which supposedly – depending on if you believe the translation – will launch in 2012. The choice? The PowerVR Series 6 by Imagination Technologies that utilizes a technology known as "TBDR," which is "3-5 times better than a competitive level nVidia/ATI Graphics card." Evidently, Sega used TBDR to help power the old Sega Dreamcast and if you remember, that console was definitely ahead of its time in the visual department. But perhaps the most interesting part about all of this is that Sony will retain the Cell processor currently in all PS3s; this new piece of advanced technology from Imagination will work with the Cell. The quote in question is as follows, although you may wish to take it with a grain of salt without any official information:
"The PlayStation 4 shall use a high end variant of the 6 Series line. Performance, specifications and features are at this time unknown. The Series 6 shall receive an official announcement from IMGTEC sometime in 2010, with initial models targeting the smartphone and netbook sector."
On top of which, the rumor gets bigger by saying that SCEI has furthered opted to work with IMGTEC for the next iteration of the PSP; the new handheld will get the benefit of the Series 5XT. All of this may sound like complete gibberish unless you're really into hardware or programming but if it's all true, this is the first solid piece of technical information we've seen concerning the PS4. The only doubt we have is whether or not it'll be available by 2012… However, if you think about it, the time frame would be in line with the last generation; the PS2 launched in late October and the PS3 launched in November of 2006. So you never know.
