• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Sony file another new patent related to backward compatibility

LewieP

LewieP

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,139
Sony have just filed another patent seemingly dealing with backward compatibility for game software

Slsboin.png


Simulation of legacy bus operation for backward compatibility

This was published on February 21st, 2019, so yesterday.

In order to deal with a problem caused by a bus operation difference when executing a legacy application with a new device, a new device emulates the bus operation of the legacy device and executes the legacy application You can adjust the bus performance when you do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is seemingly a continuation of the patent that they filed previously, and we had a thread about here.

No specific 'legacy systems' are named, so it could be referring to any of their old consoles. I'd speculate that were the PS5 to have architectural commonality with the PS4, this type of system would not be required, so perhaps the legacy devices that this is related to would be PS1/2/3. It would make a lot of sense to me that Sony would want to get legacy games running on one box, not just to sell people on a new console, but also because their new console hardware will be what the basis of any future streaming service is operating on, and to be able to offer as much content from their back catalogue as possible will be beneficial for driving subscriptions etc.

I don't think it's clear from these patents if we're talking about discs, or just downloads. Ideally it would be both.

Worth noting that this patent explicitly mentions 'Backward compatibility' in the title, which the previous one did not.

I saw this news on Games Radar
 
Last edited:
ianpm31

ianpm31

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,543
Full universal BC of all legacy systems on PS5 would be killer. That means I could finally re-download my old purchases on PS5 and play Dino Crisis again....Hope it turns out that way.
 

Deleted member 18742

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,834
Hypothetically speaking, how powerful would the PS5 have to be have backwards compatibility with PS3 games?
 
Acquiescence

Acquiescence

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,257
Lake Titicaca
Looking more and more likely that Sony is putting more stock into BC come next gen. This ain't no hype train baby, it's a hype bus.

Oh wait, this is old? Bugger.
 
Iucidium

Iucidium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,054
LewieP said:
Sony have just filed another patent seemingly dealing with backward compatibility for game software

Slsboin.png


Simulation of legacy bus operation for backward compatibility

This was published on February 21st, 2019, so yesterday.



This is seemingly a continuation of the patent that they filed previously, and we had a thread about here.

No specific 'legacy systems' are named, so it could be referring to any of their old consoles. I'd speculate that were the PS5 to have architectural commonality with the PS4, this type of system would not be required, so perhaps the legacy devices that this is related to would be PS1/2/3. It would make a lot of sense to me that Sony would want to get legacy games running on one box, not just to sell people on a new console, but also because their new console hardware will be what the basis of any future streaming service is operating on, and to be able to offer as much content from their back catalogue as possible will be beneficial for driving subscriptions etc.

I don't think it's clear from these patents if we're talking about discs, or just downloads. Ideally it would be both.

Worth noting that this patent explicitly mentions 'Backward compatibility' in the title, which the previous one did not.

I saw this news on Games Radar
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You can adjust the bus performance when you do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So 60fps everything?
Fuck me, Driveclub at 60...fuuuuck
 

Garjon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,032
It's pretty much a no-brainer now that the PS5 will have BC after the huge success of the PS4 and because of the similar architecture (supposedly) between the two consoles.
 
Betty

Betty

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,604
People still need to douse their expectations for PS1-PS3 BC on PS5.

I'd love it too but it's best not to hype ourselves up for something that probably won't happen.
 
gofreak

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,741
Betty said:
People still need to douse their expectations for PS1-PS3 BC on PS5.

I'd love it too but it's best not to hype ourselves up for something that probably won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah. And these patents have zip to do with ps1-ps3. Not to repeat myself but their timing - 2016/2017 - all originate from PS4 Pro dev.

Maybe some of the same stuff will be relevant for PS4 support on PS5 but that's about as far as they'd be relevant to PS5 BC.
 
Taker34

Taker34

QA Tester
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,122
building stone people
At some point they must've realized that a fully compatible PS1+2+3+4+5 console will sell a filthy amount of units. Anything less will be a disappointment when next gen starts.
 
OP
OP
LewieP

LewieP

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,139
Taker34 said:
At some point they must've realized that a fully compatible PS1+2+3+4+5 console will sell a filthy amount of units. Anything less will be a disappointment when next gen starts.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think the real money maker would be being able to have games from the entire legacy of Playstation consoles on PS Now, and being able to retire the likely power hungry PS3 derived hardware that is currently powering it.

It'll help sell consoles, but if it supports discs, Sony won't really profit from people using discs.

Being able to fill out the selection of games on PS+ with everything from their back catalogue would certainly help, too.
 
Genesius

Genesius

Member
Nov 2, 2018
15,696
I've actually picked up one or two PS2 games on eBay in the last week in anticipation of being able to play them on PS5. It could all be nothing, but they ain't gonna re-release Simpsons Hit & Run at any point, so...
 

Seeya

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,984
ianpm31 said:
Full universal BC of all legacy systems on PS5 would be killer. That means I could finally re-download my old purchases on PS5 and play Dino Crisis again....Hope it turns out that way.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It would also be a huge development in expanding PSNOW if they can get the backend to be hardware agnostic. I imagine that we're due to see some changes to it.
 
Araujo

Araujo

Banned
Dec 5, 2017
2,196
I have a PS2 a PS3, a PSP and a PS4 all hooked and ready to go. If i can replace all that with a Single PS5 box then im in.

However... if it's BC via streaming only, im out.

And if the PS5 is not BC at all, im also out.

I have plenty PS4 games to last me a life time.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
365
evilalien said:
That's not how it works at all. The Cell is harder to emulate than anything in the 360.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Actually CELL was rarely used, pretty much only in first party titles and even then not a tremendous amount was done with it. (Post processing and such)

Here is a 7 watt device running RPCS3 and playing a PS3 game just fine and dandy

https://youtu.be/wd50Lvdei-c

CELL was garbage and there is a reason they bolted a Nvidia GPU on the PS3 in the 11th hour.

This isnt fanboyism. Here let me disparage the Xbox brand:

The Original X1 is garbage. MS literally made a PS3.
 
ffvorax

ffvorax

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,855
I would like too a dream where PS5 can run all previous PS consoles... but I higly doubt it.
And for how much I would like it, it will be probably only digital.
So they have to give a better amount of content on the store with all the older games... that would be sick. And I could finally sell all my old physical games.
 
SirBaron

SirBaron

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
853
ianpm31 said:
Full universal BC of all legacy systems on PS5 would be killer. That means I could finally re-download my old purchases on PS5 and play Dino Crisis again....Hope it turns out that way.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I would wager being anti consumer Sony. That what they will do instead is offer you ps now, but with enhanced software i.e. 4k p1/2/3 games.

So instead of ps now streaming all titles will be downlodable, but only titles from ps now would be playable.with the exception of ps4 those would carry over.

Thats my guess considering Sony loves to make cash.
 
HellofaMouse

HellofaMouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,221
i still cant bring myself to believee that theyre gonna do disc based bc with ps1-ps3, let alone the ps4.
 
Dynedom

Dynedom

Member
Nov 1, 2017
4,701
I hope we can play PS1 and PS2 games from a disc perspective and not download. I say this because I simply don't see Sony allowing previously purchased PSOne and Two Classics on the PS5 (why do it for free when you can charge).

Actually I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up on disc-based BC either... (for anything older than PS3)
 
HitCtrlAltDel

HitCtrlAltDel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
51
Phawx said:
Hypothetically if you had the wizards at MS do the emulation layer, an OG X1 is all you'd need.

PS3 was a bit weaker than 360 hardware wise.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Depends on what hardware support the PS5 has for previous generations. The Xbox One has support for the texture and audio formats of the 360, which makes the emulation possible. It seems like these were the most tasking parts to emulate (they can be very bandwidth heavy from what I understand) so since there is hardware support for these parts of the system everything else can be done in software. I imagine for something like PS3, the hardest parts would be similar parts of the Nvidia GPU and probably the SPE's. Sony put their own spin on the AMD hardware in the PS4/pro so they might add some hardware support for these kind of operations to make backwards compatibility possible. So if there is a decent amount of hardware specific to the more unique parts of old consoles then the system as a whole doesn't need to be a beast of a computer.

All the other consoles might be able to be brute forced in code only, with PS4 support coming probably for free (since I imagine PS5 will be more like a PS4 Pro++ from a system level / architecture standpoint), a port of their old PS1 emulator on PS3/PSP for PS1 games, and making their PS2 emulator a little more generic and capable from the PS2 classics for full support of that console. There is really little in the way of them making the ultimate PlayStation console in my eyes.

Edit: This is the article I was thinking about where they say XBO has special hardware to support 360 emulation.
 
Sectorseven

Sectorseven

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,560
At this point would it be possible to shrink the Cell processor and related components down to an SoC?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.