People have always bashed the 360 for being a PC inside a console. “The 360 is just a PC but with a fetch for games”. It is true the inside of the 360 there are many PC like a parts: 3 CPUs, RAM, GPU, Sound Card. But what about the PS3? The PS3 does have all those things but is slightly diffrent and may not be the revolutionary piece of hardware everyone thinks it is. Don’t get me wrong the PS3 is quite revolutionary but it is not standalone console that everyone thinks it is.
The PS3 is a very powerful machine it can do a lot of things, Scientist have even made a Super Computer using a cluster of 8 PS3′s. On one side the PS3 hardware is quite difficult to program for. The Cell Broad Band Engine is not the angel it was cracked up to be. -The PS3’s Cell Broadband Engine processor, is a multiprocessor. Instead of identical cores – like the 360 - the Cell consists of a 64bit PowerPC core and 8 “synergistic co-processor elements” only 6 can be used by developers since 1 is reserved for the OS. -I can sense most of you read that and dropping your jaw- What does this all mean, well it means that the PS3 SPE’s can each send information individually, but the processors can only do one thing at a time: Only control AI, Physics, what have you. But this means unlike the 360, 6 different tasks can be done at the same time and each task is done at great precision, so this means great level of physics, AI etc but writing all that code and calculating all those things take a lot of time for developers thats why most multi-platform games are done on the 360 then ‘ported’ over to the PS3 (Bioshock). But the 360 can can do those things but not to as accuratly but it is much easier for programmer since the 360 is like a computer; -they already know what to do and how-. Learning how to use the SPE’s is like learning a new language all over again, but once the programmers get the hang of it, we will see games that the 360 would have trouble supporting, it already is with the size of the DVD.
With the PS3 running Linux on it you can do even greater and better things. Like the Super Computer Project the PS3 is the cheapest and most cost effective Super Computer on the market. With out Linux the Ps3 can surf the net, it can trans-code, and even do calculations (Fold @ Home). Something people may not known is that like the 360 you can have a memory card plug-in and can save your games onto a memory card. But unlike the 360 you don’t need to buy a special memory card to do it, any USB thumb drive, compatible MP3, or Mass Storage Device can be used. Even for you lazy bones out there you can go online and even download game saves. Some games like Call Of Duty 4 online you don’t even need to do that you can log on to your account at your friends house then your rank and guns will be ready to go for you since the PSN stores online things such ranks and load outs on the sever to avoid cheaters using USB thumb drives and to let you play on other consoles something the 360 can do but you need to wait for since the 360 needs to download everything from your 360 to your friends-which means its not on a sever but the sever knows what you have on your account so it can fetch your account-. The amazing thing is that once logged into your account you can share your games that you have bought. The Broswer on the Ps3 is not only a fully functional internet broswer, you can now -with the 2.50 update- watch all movies. No longer are you restricted to watching only Flash 6 -not sure what the old one was- videos you can now go on any site and watch Flash 9 videos. And say you have a nieghbour or relative with a 52″ TV with Souround Sound and the whole ten yard, you can press L3 and zoom to make the video take up the WHOLE SCREEN with no pixialating. There is also this certain insentive calle the Blu-Ray player. HD is the new wave of technology and with the Ps3 you won’t be left in the dust, infact you have a gaming console on one side, a potential pc on another, and a Blu-Ray player.
The PS3 is really a unique machine with AMAZING capabilities, with the lack proprietary in-puts and the addition of Open source, open ending experience the PS3 is more compatible with more things than any other console. With the add-on of the Blu-Ray player and frequent updates you have the most future proof piece of hardware on the market. So which system is really more like a PC? (don’t mean to sound like a sales person always end up sounding that way
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