Rumour: PlayStation 4 ditches Cell processor tech

According to sources within the industry, Sony’s next PlayStation home console won’t be making a repeat performance of the Cell processor, but instead will become ”essentially a PC” .

One thread of speculation is that AMD will provide both CPU and GPU for the PS4, which could mean an AMD Fusion chipset which combines the two.

Many developers in the beginning bemoaned PlayStation 3’s method of running software, which led to inferior ports in the early days of the platform but eventually it was ‘tamed’.

The PS3 uses a Nvidia graphics chipset but rumour has it that Sony is favouring AMD this time around, which would work well if they decided to dump Cell for a CPU and GPU combined architecture like AMD Fusion. Development studios should be over the moon with the news as suddenly PlayStation development gets much easier.

Sony hasn’t acknowledged the possible existence of the next PlayStation, but from what insiders appear to be leaking it would definitely arrive after Microsoft’s next Xbox, believed to be codenamed Durango.