Posted on 05/17/2005 1:24:45 PM PDT by Yossarian
You and me both. :-)
(and the next gen XBox, Gamecube, PC etc. LOL!)
Does anyone know
which of the big companies
making game boxes
are the most open
to independent writers
bringing up programs
onto their hardware?
Do some make development
tools more readily
available than
others? Are there restrictive
fees for programmers?
Lots of good stuff coming!!!
actually they dont they are using a proprietary PowerPC processor. No cell processing going on.
What...damn!
You are right, but thats also my point too. Consoles have become a test bed market for new technologies in the computing world. Like right now it is known that both the ATI chipset on the new nintendo and the Nvidia on the new XBox are at least one generation ahead of current vid cards, they might be two generations ahead. Obviously you cannot and would not want to run a OS on a console because that would defeat there purpose of a dedicated gaming experience.
But some points I failed to mention earlier, and I think is hugely missed in PC vs Console arguments and that consoles are made for tv, if you hooked your pc up to your tv or hd system you still wont get the same quality as you would with a console because the rendering and resolutions will not work as well.
Plus I would rather sit on my tush and play a RPG on my tv kicked back in a recliner any day over hunched over my computer desk and play diablo or morrowind, fine games in themselves and more finely detailed than most console games, but man my a** hurts after too long playing on it.
ASUS First AGEIA Board Partner Supporting AGEIA PhysX Processor for Games
*******************************************
Tuesday May 17, 7:17 pm ET
ASUS is one of the world's largest and most successful manufacturers of motherboards, graphics cards and other computer hardware. The company has been at the forefront of emerging technologies for the PC since the founding of ASUS in 1989, and has won countless awards for innovation and quality. ASUS support for the AGEIA PhysX processor is another milestone for AGEIA in its meteoric rise in the games industry.
And:
Ageia's PPU is an important step...an interview
"Men", she says as she rolls her eyes.
And accomplish what? Effective killing and fantasy murder? Go to a bar to destroy your liver. Play a video game to destroy your mind. Eye candy, like regular candy is not good for you.
You do what you like to do and I will do what I like to do. If you hate vid games so much, why are you on this thread?
Good stuff! :-)
You are correct - the Nintendo only uses the IBM custom PowerPC. I was loose in my facts ;-)
To point out your wasting your life on crap! Call it Vidiot intervention!
I am not much of a gamer but that might be about to change, the tech going into gaming is just to cool, might have to get a play station 3.
In all actuality I am not either. LOL! But I do love the technology.
I did. Just last year I got a Gamecube and 2 Xboxes. SWEEEET!
I am gonna wait on the play station 3, the tech in it sounds far more advanced then anything on the market today. Meanwhile I'd get by with an occasional civ 3 on my PC.
I like the Xbox 360, but will wait years for it as I did with the new consoles I currently have. They develop more games, the prices always drop and the bugs are all taken care of over time.
Plus, the Wife doesn't give me, "The Look," for spending too much.
Hmm.... I use computers every day to study orbit and physics simulations. I am also studying how these can be virtually displayed. Gaming is encroaching into VR and I for one am fascinated. I also study and love the technology behind the games, such as the physics chip I alluded to earlier in the thread.
I have friends in Silicon Valley who were instrumental in developing both the personal gaming machines and the personal computer. Some of them were members of the original Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto. You can thank them for the computer you have today.
Did you know that the processor in the Nintendo 64 is a MIPS R4000?
From here: (also has a picture of the die)
http://www.mic-d.com/gallery/chips/mips4000.html
The R4000 central processing unit core was MIPS Technologies' first 64-bit, super-pipelined endeavor with reduced instruction set computing (RISC) specifications. The processor operated at 5 volts and squeezed 1.1 million transistors onto 213 square millimeters of silicon substrate using 1.0-micron photolithography techniques. A later, further-miniaturized version supported 1.3 million transistors on a 165-square-millimeter die, featuring a 100 MHz clock speed and 8 Kbytes each of directly mapped input and data caches built with Harvard Architecture.
The R4000 powered some SGI workstations. Dont forget the Nintendo 64 is now two generations back in gaming platforms.
My life revolves around computers and very high technology. I live eat and breathe in a sea of silicon every day. For example, I personally hand carried the onboard flight computers for the Magellan Spacecraft between facilities when we were getting it ready for launch using the Space Shuttle. Silicon and RF is in my blood so to speak.
Every computer (non laptop or actual workstation) I own, I have built myself. You can bet your bottom dollar they beat the heck out of the average machine you will find in a store. Of course the SGI VME server I own I did not build. LOL!
So the bottom line is, am I wasting my life? Well lets see:
I have worked in the US space program for years. Helped fly a spacecraft to another planet, some of my RF designs are still being used in various facilities, help teach kids about astrophysics (even though I have no kids myself), am a pilot, learned how to mountain climb (climbed the Grand Teton in Wyoming), taught classes, read thousands of books, play chess, helped defend this nation by serving in the armed forces when I was younger, Flown in the back seat of fighter jets (F4s), ran interplanetary spacecraft trajectory simulations when I was at JPL, sent the very first command to a satellite after achieving orbit form a Vandenberg launch, sat console for more than 5 launches, worked as a designer on our current space station, worked with SETI using a radio telescope I helped design (hence my screen name), cant cook for crap LOL, hate yard work (why I dont do it), but my bathrooms are spotless (clean freak LOL), sat on the edge of a working bathtub nuclear reactor watching the blue glow of the Cerenkov radiation coming from the core with my own eyes (we had the top off and all I had was distilled water between me and the nuclear core cranked up to 600 megawatt s), etc.
So the occasional game (and if you look at those titles you will not see lots of blood and guts games (except Halo and Fable)) is a nice diversion. I especially like GT4. I can drive cars I would never be able to in real life.
Still want to call me a vidiot?
Hee hee.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.