- PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny showed off new technology for Sony’s next console
- The collaboration between Sony and AMD on Project Amethyst has enabled technological advances that “still exist in simulation”.
- Cerny says he is “really excited about the idea of offering them on a future console in a few years.”
Mark Cerny, lead architect of the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro, shared new developments from Sony and AMD’s Project Amethyst collaboration and, in doing so, teased the PlayStation 6.
In a new video released by PlayStation, titled “From Project Amethyst to the Future of Gaming: The Shared Vision of AMD and Sony Interactive Entertainment,” Cerny, joined by AMD’s Jack Huynh, senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Group, discussed the technological developments resulting from the collaboration.
The goal of Project Amethyst, announced last year, is to develop machine learning technology across various devices and additional graphics capabilities.
However, it was Cerny’s comments at the end of the video that got the most attention, as they give an idea of what Sony is working on next regarding its hardware.
“Overall, these technologies are of course still in their early stages, they currently only exist in simulation. But the results are quite promising and I’m really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years,” Cerny said.
Could this mean the PS6 is only a few years away? Cerny’s comments certainly suggest that Sony is at least currently studying the next evolution of its console and has likely confirmed the existence of the next PlayStation itself, which would likely feature technology developed with Project Amethyst.
Look on it
Speaking of which, Cerny and Huynh also revealed three advancements in the video, including Neural Networks, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression.
Neural Arrays is a new solution for scaling technologies 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 group of computing units operating on their own, we created a way for them to team up, share data and process things together, like a single, focused AI engine,” Huynh explained.
“Neural networks will allow us to process a large portion of the screen at once, and the resulting efficiency gains will be a game-changer as we begin to develop the next generation of upscaling and denoising technologies together,” Cerny added.
The Radiance Cores are also designed to minimize demand on the GPU when ray tracing is involved, which Huynh says is “a new dedicated hardware block designed for unified light transport” to handle both ray tracing and real-time path tracing.
Finally, Universal Compression is a system that evaluates data coming into the GPU, “not just textures”, by compressing it and significantly reducing memory bandwidth usage.
“This means the GPU can provide more detail, higher frame rates and greater efficiency,” Huynh said.
We can’t know when the next Sony console will arrive, but according to recent leaks, the PS6 is expected to launch between late 2027 and early 2028.
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