64w ago - Following up on our previous article, today Kotaku (linked above) reports that according to inside sources Sony may be ditching the Cell Processor for the PlayStation 4 console.

Below are the details, to quote: "The PlayStation 4 will not use Sony's Cell processor nor any possible successor to the vaunted chipset that was introduced to the world through the PlayStation 3, gaming industry sources tell Kotaku.

What we're hearing from sources follow a Forbes rumor last week that chip-maker AMD would make the graphics chip for a PS4, a shift from the PS3's use of a graphics chip from AMD rival Nvidia.

The abandonment of the Cell architecture would thrill the many game developers who have struggled with the complex chipset, but it could also be viewed as the admission of a mistake.

Cell was the pet project of PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, who dreamed that the chip- a "Power Processing Element" married to eight "Synergistic Processing Elements"- would make the PS3 the most impressive gaming console ever. He spoke of a home equipped with multiple devices that were powered by Cell, all of them linking to each other to increase the computational power driving any...

65w ago - A few months back Sony stated that PlayStation 4 is expected to arrive with rival next-generation consoles, and today Forbes.com reports that PS4 is in development with AMD rumored to be building the system's graphics technology.

To quote: "Sony is working on an as-yet-unannounced new gaming console, former AMD employees say, and the processor designer may play a key role in the new product.

AMD's graphics technology is already used in Microsoft's XBox 360 console. However, Sony's PlayStation 3 - introduced in 2006 - relies on graphics technology from Nvidia.

AMD declined to comment on the project. Sony Chief Transformation Officer George Bailey also declined to discuss Sony's new console, or even acknowledge its existence.

However, at AMD's analyst day last month, AMD Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert identified gaming as one of several trends that will drive revenue growth at AMD in 2012."

197w ago - iD Software's technical director John Carmack predicts that the PS4 will be the first next-gen console out on the market.

He also expects for at least one of the upcoming consoles to ship without support for optical media.

To quote: John Carmack, technical director at iD Software, has predicted that Sony will be the first platform holder to make a move into the next generation of gaming hardware - though he doesn't expect any new machines to be announced in the near future.

"The whole jockeying for who's going to release the first next-gen console is very interesting and pretty divorced from the technical side of things," Carmack told CD-Action, as spotted by Eurogamer's Digital Foundry.

"Whether Sony wants to jump the gun to prevent the same sort of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely.

"As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible. We'd like to see it be quite a few more years before the next-gen consoles comes out, but I suspect one will end up shipping something earlier rather than later."