Although we have a few years before the next-generation of gaming consoles make their way into the market, Sony is stepping up its research for PlayStation 4 to better entice developers. According to Kotaku, Sony is looking to leave the Cell architecture for a more open and workable architecture. Supposedly developers are having issues tapping into the existing architecture, and Sony wants to make it easy for them to release new titles. Makes sense. Initially, Sony was investigating Cell and Intel’s Larrabee, but it wanted more processing power and decided to move away from the platform. It was also considering a modified version of the Synergistic processor but is now supposedly working on its own multi-core CPU design.
Sony isn’t the only one that is looking into new architectures. Nintendo and Microsoft are just as interested. Sources report it will take up to 24 months to produce the new consoles, so it will be a while before we see them hitting retail shelves. That also suggests upcoming handheld consoles like the PSP2 will make their way into the market before the updated consoles.
