In a recent video, PlayStation 5 lead architect Mark Cerny and AMD SVP Jack Huynh offered an exciting peek into the advanced technologies that might power Sony’s eagerly anticipated PlayStation 6. Their collaboration, known as Project Amethyst, aims to push the boundaries of gaming innovation. Cerny expressed immense enthusiasm for bringing these significant breakthroughs to a “future console.”
A Game-Changer for Future Upscaling
Cerny and Huynh highlighted three major advancements currently in development. Cerny noted that existing technologies like FSR and PSSR often strain GPUs and system memory. The first exciting concept is “Neural Arrays.” Huynh clarified that these are designed to enhance efficiency by allowing different compute units to “team up” and share data when tackling neural network challenges. This innovation promises superior FSR and ray tracing capabilities, increased overall efficiency, and improved scalability as graphical demands grow.
Cerny emphasized that “Neural Arrays will enable us to process vast portions of the screen simultaneously, delivering unprecedented efficiencies that will revolutionize the next generation of upscaling and denoising technologies we develop.”
Furthermore, Cerny and Huynh anticipate significant advancements in ray tracing, utilizing “Neural Radiance Caching” (first revealed at Computex) and “Radiance Cores.” These combined technologies will enable real-time ray tracing and path tracing, offering game developers incredible new levels of realistic lighting. This also frees up the CPU to concentrate on complex geometry and simulation tasks. Huynh described this as “a cleaner, faster, and more efficient pipeline built for the next generation of ray-traced games.”
The final major revelation was “Universal Compression,” an innovative system aimed at dramatically reducing memory bandwidth usage in future GPUs and System-on-Chips. Building on technologies already present in the PS5 and PS5 Pro, Universal Compression will meticulously analyze and compress all data en route to the system memory. This intelligent approach is expected to result in lower power consumption, superior visual quality, and enhanced overall performance.
Cerny candidly admitted that these technologies are “still in their very early stages, currently existing only in simulation.” However, he expressed great optimism, stating, “the results are quite promising, and I’m really excited about bringing them to a future console in a few years’ time.”
As the PlayStation 5 approaches its fifth anniversary, Sony has offered glimpses into its plans for a successor. Among these hints is the intriguing concept of a detachable disc drive, suggesting a modular design for the rumored console. Sony has also affirmed its commitment to powerful hardware over cloud technology, understanding that its player base favors “local execution” of games, whether from a physical disc or a direct digital download.
