maybe PS3 This is the most unique console that Sony has released to date. Not only because it could run PS2 games without the need for emulation, but because of a processor that was cutting edge for its time. Cell / B.E It was a creation between IBM, Toshiba and Sonywith extraordinary power and complexity went crazy yes developers.
Many developers have said over the years that programming games for the PS3 was one of their most difficult tasks. The reason is the legendary Cell Broadband Engine, an unusual processor with features that did not exist at the time.
Ken Kutaragi was the one who raised PlayStation consoles and became the father of PS3, the most original and ambitious of his creations. This creation came to dislodge the company’s consoles from their comfortable position.
An awkward processor that drove developers crazy
The PS3 had an amazing processor called the Cell Broadband Engine, although it was known by the acronym Cell/BE. It was characterized by much more power than the processors of that time and a rather special design. It was the first heterogeneous processor in which two types of cores were combined.
Specifically, the console featured a primary core called the Power Processing Element (PPE) and eight additional cores called Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE).
PPE is a general-purpose core created by IBM based on the PowerPC architecture that ran at 3.2 GHz. The function of this core is to coordinate and control the system. In addition, it had the task of running the operating system and tasks that do not require parallel processing.
On the other hand, we have SPE, a type of kernel designed specifically for efficient parallel execution of operations. Something rather interesting is that out of the eight cores, one was deactivated at the factory to improve the manufacturing process.
As if that wasn’t enough, another one of the eight cores was reserved for operating system tasks. This left a total of six SPEs available to run applications and games.
Each of the seven functional cores had 512 KB of L2 cache. This made them capable of intensive tasks such as physical calculations, graphics processing or multimedia, among others.
Cell/BE was designed to improve performance in parallel processing. This processor was ideal for handling advanced graphics and complex game physics. But it had a problem, which was that this processor was very difficult to use.
Developing games for this PS3 processor was a real nightmare. Some, like Valve CEO Gabe Newell, had this to say about the console:
PlayStation 3 is a waste of time. Trying to master the Cell/BE and SPE CPUs is of no long-term benefit. There is nothing special about this processor. The only thing you’re going to accomplish by working with her is hating her.
Many games at the time were delayed, such as Gran Turismo 5, which appeared on the market much later than announced. It was difficult for Naughty Dog to take full advantage of the processor. They emphasized that for Uncharted they only used 30% of the benefits of the Cell/BE processor and only in Uncharted 2 they will use 100% of its capabilities.
Naughty Dog also noted that in the games Uncharted 3 and The last of Us they managed to get the maximum from the processor. It seems they have managed to go further and optimize their games to get the most out of the CPU.
