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The gaming market expands
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Three leading gaming console makers have announced their next generation systems
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MANY OPTIONS Gamers can now splurge on new systems this season Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
Like the proverbial race between the hare and the tortoise, the world of computing has seen the underrated business of games and PC entertainment slowly overtake hardcore corporate computing systems, in complexity and reach.
Today's most popular computer games require graphic processors and other multimedia hardware that are normally seen only on the desks of animation filmmakers. You thought one teraflop - that's a million operations per second - was something that only supercomputers achieve? Think again. The next version of Microsoft's video game console - Xbox 360 - due by the year-end is slated to achieve better than one teraflop performance, as well as a level of processing normally found only in artificial intelligence systems.
Its biggest competitor is likely to be Sony's Playstation 3 (PS3) due in early 2006. Driven by a new `Cell' processor, created jointly by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the PS3 boasts the computing power equivalent of two teraflops. This is required to drive an advanced graphics chip specially co-developed by Nvidia.
Both these machines will vie for the new opportunities opened up by broadband. That is, in addition to working stand-alone as games terminals, they can also be connected to the Net for online multi-gamer options. Both machines will also double as music and video players/ recorders. The third player in the video game market, Nintendo, has announced its own new model to be called Revolution. The company has cannily sidestepped too much competition with the other two biggies, by exploring the portable gaming market where its product GameBoy is a firm favourite. Whichever machine becomes big in India, the ones who are going to be raking in the moolah are those who develop the software for the games.
A. VISHNU
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