“At the SIGGRAPH 2000 computer graphics conference this week,
Sony Computer Entertainment announced its “strategic vision for the
evolution of computer entertainment in the broadband network era.”
At the core of this vision is a piece of hardware which is composed
of the same building blocks as the PlayStation2, but multiplied
many times. The GScube development system, as it is called, will be
used in the development of “e-cinema,” computer graphics movies and
other new digital content.”
“The GScube prototypes are powered by sixteen Emotion Engines
and sixteen Graphics Synthesizers. Yes, this is sixteen
PlayStation2s rolled into one. It is NOT a game system, though…
It’s a computer graphics workstation, comparable to the systems
created by Silicon Graphics and other companies to produce
high-quality CG movies.”
“The difference between GScube and some of its predecessors in
this field of computer equipment seems to be that GScube is being
created with real-time content generation in mind. The overall plan
seems to involve generating content with this development system,
which is then streamed from a powerful server to viewers
downloading it via broadband Internet connections. Thus, another
piece may have appeared in Sony’s plan to deliver broadband content
to PlayStation2. Several potential big-name content producers are
involved in Sony’s display at SIGGRAPH, including Square,
DreamWorks, and Warner Bros.”