Summary
Sony has announced an ambitious new partnership that suggests thePS6will utilize AMD technology. The collaboration itself is meant to fuel innovations in machine learning for game graphics and other applications, with its benefits potentially reaching beyond thePlayStationecosystem.
Sony and AMD have been working closely together since the late 2000s, back when the PS4 started development. The first result of this collaboration was the 28nm accelerated processing unit (APU) utilized by Sony’s eighth-generation console. Thesuccess of the PS4 reportedly helped save AMD from bankruptcyand allowed Sony to bounce back from the PS3, its least successful home console at the time. The two companies have once again collaborated on the PS5, which also uses a semi-custom APU designed by AMD.
Sony and AMD have recently decided to further deepen their ties, as confirmed byPlayStation architect Mark Cerny. During a technical seminar on the PS5 Pro held at Sony Interactive Entertainment HQ in San Mateo on December 18, Cerny announced a new partnership between Sony and AMD called Amethyst. The project has two goals, the first being the “democratization” of machine learning through the development of “a more ideal architecture for ML.” Secondly, AMD and Sony are aiming to develop new convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for graphics rendering. “These components should be key in increasing the richness of game graphics, as well as enabling more extensive use of ray tracing and path tracing,” Cerny said on the subject of CNNs.
Sony and AMD’s Project Amethyst Seems PS6-Bound
The PlayStation architect labeled Amethyst as a long-term collaboration, thus suggesting that the technology stemming from this initiative likely won’t see the light of day in the immediate future. Amethyst is hence more likely to result in PS6 tech. Reading between the lines, it’s unlikely that Sony would get involved with such high-level research and development with AMD if it wasn’t planning on using AMD-made hardware for the PS6. This theory is consistent with a September 2024 report claimingSony has already finalized a deal that will see AMD design and manufacture the PlayStation 6 APU.
Project Amethyst Goals
And while Amethyst increases the likelihood of the PS6 using AMD tech, Cerny insists that the project “is not about proprietary technology for PlayStation.” Instead, the goal of the initiative is to facilitate machine learning applications “across a variety of devices.” Sony’s machine learning research and development efforts could hence eventually produce benefits extending beyond the PlayStation ecosystem.
In February 2024, Sony CFO Hiroki Totokisaid the PS5 is already in “the latter half” of its life cycle. Seeing how the ninth-generation console hit the market in late 2020, that remark suggests the PS6 is planned to arrive no later than 2028.
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