Sony and AMD Announce "Project Amethyst" Collaboration for PlayStation 6
Sony Interactive Entertainment and AMD have jointly shared information on their collaboration for future gaming hardware dubbed by them as "Project Amethyst." Through the presentation, PlayStation Lead Architect Mark Cerny and AMD SVP Jack Huynh introduced three core technologies-Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression-that are to be present in future AMD GPUs and the PlayStation 6 console from Sony.
Through the announcement, Mark Cerny gave an extra side of information to Digital Foundry, which explains the shift in Sony's hardware strategy and the area of focus for its next-generation console.
Montanous Shift in Hardware Strategy
Cerny explained that Sony is getting away from custom technologies made exclusively for PlayStation, concentrating instead on co-engineering and developing hardware and libraries in lockstep with AMD, for their general roadmap.
"That change will have a very large impact," Cerny states. "When developers can create their technology with understanding that it is going to work across multiple platforms such as desktops, laptops, consoles, etc., there will be much larger pickup of new features."
Ray Tracing and Machine Learning Are Now More Important Than Rasterization
Cerny confirmed a strategic pivot in performance goals for the next PlayStation console. The primary goals will be a substantial increase in ray tracing and machine learning performance. Rasterization will be improved where possible, but is no longer the primary target.
This agrees with what has been rumoured that the PS6 could have rasterization perform between 2.5x and 3x faster than the PS5, but a much larger ray tracing improvement of 6x to 12x.
Technologies Core to Project Amethyst
The new features are currently in simulation, with their full effects awaited once developers have prototype hardware.
- Neural Arrays & Radiance Cores: These hardware are designed to advance the AI/machine learning and ray-tracing calculations, respectively. Cerny feels developers will need that hands-on time with prototypes to understand how to fully "level up their engines."
- Universal Compression: According to Cerny, this is critical, considering that with every hardware generation, it is becoming harder and harder to achieve large upgrades in memory bandwidth. Hence, the ability to compress efficiently will be of paramount importance in streaming large assets and data. He also voiced out his aspirations that there should be synergies between Universal Compression and ML technologies like FSR and PSSR.
PlayStation 6 Launch Window
This discussion of next-gen technologies further complements existing rumors, including one from leaker Kepler, who suggested a 2027 planned launch for the PlayStation 6 console.
