- Lead architect of PS5, Mark Cerny, has teased new technology for Sony's next console
- Sony and AMD's Project Amethyst collaboration has had some technological breakthroughs that "still exist in simulation"
- Cerny says he's "really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years' time"
Mark Cerny, lead architect of PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro, has shared new developments from Sony and AMD's Project Amethyst collaboration, and in the process, teased the PlayStation 6.
In a new video published by PlayStation, titled 'From Project Amethyst to the Future of Play: AMD and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Shared Vision', Cerny, joined by AMD’s Jack Huynh, SVP and GM, Computing and Graphics Group, discussed the technology developments from the collaboration.
The goal of Project Amethyst, which was announced last year, is to develop machine learning technology across various devices and further graphical capabilities.
However, it was Cerny's comments at the end of the video that caught the most attention, as they provide a hint toward what Sony is working on next regarding its hardware.
"Overall, it's of course still very early days for these technologies, they only exist in simulation right now. But the results are quite promising and I'm really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years' time," Cerny said.
Could this mean the PS6 is only a few years away? Cerny's words certainly suggest that Sony is at least currently looking into its next console evolution, and has probably confirmed the existence of the next PlayStation itself, which would likely feature the tech developed with Project Amethyst.
Speaking of, Cerny and Huynh also revealed three breakthroughs in the video, including Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression.
Neural Arrays is a new solution for upscaling tech like Sony's PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) and AMD's FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) to be less demanding on the GPU.
"Instead of having a bunch of compute units all working on their own, we’ve built a way for them to team up, to actually share data and process things together like a single, focused AI engine," Huynh explained.
"Neural Arrays will allow us to process a large chunk of the screen in one go, and the efficiencies that comes from that are going to be a game changer as we begin to develop the next generation of upscaling and denoising technologies together," Cerny added.
Radiance Cores are also designed to minimize the demand of the GPU when ray tracing is involved, which Huynh said is "a new dedicated hardware block designed for unified light transport" to handle both ray tracing and path tracing in real-time.
Finally, Universal Compression is a system that evaluates data that goes into the GPU, "not just textures", compressing it and dramatically reducing memory bandwidth usage.
"That means the GPU can deliver more detail, higher frame rates, and greater efficiency," Huynh said.
We can't be sure when the next Sony console will arrive, but according to recent leaks, the PS6 is expected to launch in late 2027 to early 2028.
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