Will PS5 Play PS4?
In the ongoing circuit of rumors that surround the intangible PS5, we’ve caught word of a backward compatibility patent. Now more than ever, the likelihood of backward compatibility on the next PlayStation seems like a real possibility.
News of Sony’s new patent originated in Reddit, which provided a rough translation of the details. According to the filed document, the PlayStation 5 is being built with an architecture that can “imitate the behavior of the previous consoles.” If the system is implemented, we could see a new console with a much better CPU, that potentially plays all the games from this generation.
For now, however, we’ll treat this patent as a rumor until there’s an official confirmation. Another caveat to this info, even if it’s true, is that we don’t know if Sony will implement it in the PS5. Simply put, patents get filed all the time. You can find the link here, while the translation is available below.
“Sony Japan has just registered a new patent that allows the retrocompatibility of the hardware with previous consoles. It is a system to be applied in a future machine, PS5, and that allows the CPU of the new console to be able to “interpret” the central unit of the previous machines. The author of the development was Mark Cerny, the architect who designed the PS4 structure, and the patent, which has been filed under number 2019-503013, briefly explains what it consists of.
“The aim is to make the applications designed for the previous consoles (legacy device) run perfectly on the most powerful hardware, and is focused on eliminating the synchronization errors between the new consoles and the behavior of the previous ones (PS4, PS3, PS2, and PSX). For example, if the CPU of the new console is faster than the previous one, data could be overwritten prematurely, even if they were still being used by another component.
“Thanks to the new system, PS5 would be able to imitate the behavior of the previous consoles, so that the information that arrives at the different processors is returned in response to the “calls” of the games. The processor is able to detect the needs of each application and behave as if it were the original “brain” of each machine, cheating the software. This technology does not prevent PS5 could also have additional processors to have compatibility with machines whose architecture is difficult to replicate, as in the case of PS2.
“In this blog you can see the most detailed information of the patent, with the diagrams in Japanese. Yesterday we explained the SRGAN process that allows you to perform “remastering by emulation” (another of the elements that Sony has patented, and converts images in SD resolution in 4K using artificial intelligence.”
Do you believe that PlayStation 5 will have “retrocompatibility” architecture in place? Would it make the next console that much more appealing in your eyes? Let us know in the comments below.
SOURCE: (Thanks, Resetera)