udah pada tau kan? sony ngeluarin console game terbaru: Playstation 3 (PS3). Waktu seminar kemaren, kebetulan ada orang IBM bicara mengenai PowerG5 untuk mainframe. Di sela-sela pembicaraannya, dia mengatakan bahwa IBM sekarang konsen ke masalah server dan console game. Nggak lagi ngurusin dekstop pc. Hal ini terlihat dari dilepasnya lenovo dan beralihnya Aple menggunakan processor intel x86. Salah satu yang mencengangkan adalah digunakannya cell processor IBM PowerPC pada playstation 3. Selain itu, sony juga “katanya” akan melepas API Documentation untuk PS3 ini menjadi open source. Jauh sebelumnya, IBM udah gembar-gembor mengenai FAQ dan HOWTO untuk programming di cell processor-nya untuk para pengembang linux.

Oia, tidak seperti ps2, main language untuk development di ps3 adalah bahasa c! dan graphics API-nya merupakan versi cut-down dari OpenGL. wehehehee… ajib neh. berikut ini adalah kutipan dari ps3dev.info

The PlayStation 3’s primary programming language will be C, unlike the PS2 which relied heavily on assembly. Sony has said the PS3’s graphics API will be a cut down version of the OpenGL|ES library, which is very good news for developers: OpenGL is an industry standard platform, widely recognized and familiar to many programmers and certainly not limited to just the gaming industry. It gives studios the opportunity to hire experienced talent from other areas of IT such as scientific, CAD/CAM, or embedded system graphics experts. OpenGL also has a fairly shallow learning curve, which is good news for independent or garage developers: it is a comparatively easy library to learn the basics of, with a massive amount of free information and tutorials available online.

A more challenging aspect of development on the PS3 will also be faced by Xbox 360 coders: both platforms have parallel, multicore architectures. The PlayStation 3’s Cell processor features one IBM PowerPC core (a 64 bit, general purpose CPU, also known as the PPE or Power Processor Element) coupled with 8 “synergistic processing elements” (SPE’s, also referred to as SPU’s). Work by IBM on a Linux port for Cell (termed the “Broadband Processor Architecture” or BPA) has shown that on Linux at least, programmers will be able to read and write to the SPU’s as if they’re part of the file system, a familiar concept to UNIX engineers. Whether the PlayStation 3 will also take this approach is not known; it seems at this stage that IBM/Sony/Toshiba want developers to choose for themselves how to utilize the hardware, having made motions about making the SDK open source.

An interesting observation about the SPE’s is that they are like next generation vector units: they will have their own 256K of local memory as well as the shared main memory and be capable of integer as well as floating point operations. For a more complete comparison, refer to this slide from Sony’s GDC ‘05 presentation.

Get ready from now! let’s code for PS3…