As If We Didn’t Have Enough to Be Excited For
Sony’s next-gen console isn’t even out yet, but a new patent hints at a PS5 Pro being in the pipeline.
Maybe “New” is an overstatement since the patent was first filed last year, but only recently made public. This could mean that there won’t be a long wait for the Pro Model of the console- after all, it was only three years into the PS4’s life cycle that the PS4 Pro was released alongside the PS4 Slim.
The patent- like all patents- is filled with a fair amount of jargon, but there are a couple of things that catch the eye. First of all the patent isn’t called “PS5 Pro”, but “Scalable Game Console CPU/GPU Design for Home Console and Cloud Gaming.” While it’s a safe bet that a last-minute name change isn’t in the works, it’s also a safe bet that a new feature for the PS5 wouldn’t be announced for the base console so close to its release this holiday season.
As for what the patented technology does, that’s where it gets a bit more complex. One paragraph reads:
“In a multi-GPU simulation environment, frame buffer management may be implemented by multiple GPUs rendering respective frames of video, or by rendering respective portions of each frame of video,” reads the patent. “One of the GPUs controls HDMI frame output by virtue of receiving frame information from the other GPU(s) and reading out complete frames through a physically connected HDMI output port. Or, the outputs of the GPUs can be multiplexed together.”
