A week ago I was reporting how 'leaked' documents were suggesting that the PlayStation 4 would build upon existing CELL processor architecture with the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE). At the time I said that this was good news, not bad, in that it meant costs should be kept down and that will be important if Sony is to avoid the pricing mistakes it has made with the PS3 which have effectively hamstrung any chance of gaming market dominance despite the undoubted superiority of the hardware compared to other consoles.
Now, with one eye still firmly on the for the PS4 of either late 2010 or early 2011, my other eye has been interested in yet another well informed rumour which would seem to throw one more bit of information into the PlayStation specification speculation pool. This time it is the possibility of an Intel inside the PS4, an Intel GPU that is: specifically the much hyped Intel Larrabee.
According to The Inquirer the news of an Intel Larrabee GPU for the PS4 was leaked out around the vicinity of the Sony booth at CES in Las Vegas recently. There is even some talk of Intel doing more than just the GPU, and perhaps throwing the entire 'CPU and all' architecture into the next generation PlayStation console.
Mind you, Sony has gone on the defensive. Not just the 'no comment' defensive or even the 'we have yet to decide upon the PS4 GPU' defensive for that matter. How about, according to a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe representative who told TechRadar that "it's nonsense, and is quite possibly the best work of fiction I've read, since Lord of the Rings."
Of course, that kind of 'doth protest too much' denial always makes me think that there just might be something in the rumour after all.
