System Architect Reveals Hardware Info About the "PlayStation 5" Console

At long last, new and noteworthy information about Sony's next console, the "PlayStation 5," has been revealed. Lead PS4 System Architect Mark Cerny recently spoke in an exclusive with WIRED's Peter Rubin about the company's next console.

Cerny worked as the Lead System Architect for the "next-gen console," as he insists on calling it. The interview began with some exposition about how this is not "a mere upgrade" like the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. According to him, Sony has pushed out the deployment of development kits to a number of studios.

As you might expect, the next PlayStation will feature a few hardware improvements. The CPU chip will be produced by AMD, based on their third generation Ryzen models. It will contain eight cores, each using the AMD 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The graphics card will be a custom variant of the Radeon Navi. This special model will support a complex light rendering technique known as Ray Tracing. If this is true, it will be the first game console to support such a feature.

Here's an example of how ray tracing can improve visual effects.



The AMD chip will reportedly include 3D audio support, providing more dynamic and immersive gameplay sounds. This will be extra important, should the console support VR. Unfortunately, Cerny did not speak about the PlayStation VR or how it might be compatible with the new console.

The last major point of discussion was the hard drive. Cerny reveals that the console's biggest "game changer" is actually in the usage of solid state drives over traditional hard disc drives. Now specially designed to operate with the SSDs, the next-gen console has dramatically improved load times. Cerny showcased this with a live example. On one TV, he had Spider-Man for the PS4. Using the fast travel system, it took him about 15 seconds of loading to go from one side of the map to the other. On a different TV, a "low-speed" model of the next-gen console was attached, playing the same game. It took him 0.8 seconds of loading to perform the same action. That's fast.

It also means better gameplay. Cerny showed that in the PS4 Spider-Man, the camera could not move faster than Spidey could swing. He explained that this is simply because the hard drive could not pull data any faster. On the next-gen console, he sped through town significantly faster.

Technical details about the SSD remain a mystery. But it's clear that the hardware development team are making a point to get the most they can out of the upgrade.

We still have some time before the "PS5" will be formally revealed, and probably an extra year after that before they hit store shelves. Even so, it's great to see what it will be capable of.