Navaho Gunleg

A colleague just pointed me to this post linking to some articles on programming the Cell Broadband Processor (the technology that powers the Playstation 3). If you’re into that stuff you might want to check it out.

I also noted that, although Sony’s marketing machine is slowly being put into motion, there’s quite a bunch of negative publicity surrounding the Playstation 3 — where all the various media are focussing on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, leaving the public thinking it’s about that only.

Also, the negativity about the Playstation 3′s pricing is silly. Again, people focussing on the difference between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD whereas the difference is bigger than that. In my humble opinion, people fail to acknowledge that the Cell technology is a true ‘next generation’ system because it’s unlike anything known today. (Well, in the IT industry that’s always ‘yesterday‘.)

I even read comparisons to the BETAMAX / VHS debacle years ago (which wasn’t really a debacle at all. That the whole multitude seemed to go for a lesser technology (VHS) was their problem — Betamax was still preferred in studio’s). VHS biggest advantage was being open. No proprietary licenses that would make it expensive for other vendors to implement the same technology.

It seems that now, when it comes to programming the thing, the PS3 does adhere to standards which in itself is a good thing.

From a technological point of view it’s a damn interesting piece of kit — looking more promising than any beefed up personal computer can do.

Too bad that most people lack to see the beauty of it and rather trash it on the things that they do think they understand. But hey, I’m not trying to be a Playstation advocate (rather an advocate of interesting technology), but that’s just something I’ve observed.

Cell processor, Sony, IBM, Toshiba, PS3