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A different kind of computer
I just had an idea today. A PC/Console hybrid.
Imagine you buy a console, like the PS3 or Xbox360. You pay somewhere between $400-$600 bucks for the system, but here's where my idea comes in. Instead of just having a static system that is replaced every 5 years or so, have it be upgradeable.
For instance, with the Xbox 360 you can upgrade the hard drive. But imagine if you could upgrade the graphical processing ability merely by switchng out a cartridge, much like the hard drive. Or imagine you could push a button on the side of your pc/console hybrid and a 'cpu card' pops out. Then all you have to do is slip in the new faster CPU card and it works.
The advantage customer side would be a console with a longer life, that has the upgradeablity of a pc to stay abreast of performance demands. Another advantage is ease of upgradeabilty and the lack of incompatibility issues.
The advantage developer side is you are still developing for a single system. Perhaps performance would be scaleable, much like the difference between running games on standard resolution versus hi def. Once you upgrade your pc/console, it would auto detect the hardware and adjust performance accordingly.
Nothing is impossible, but perhaps this is impractical somehow. But the idea of being able to slide a GPU cartridge or CPU card into a pc/console slot to upgrade without cracking the case seems very user friendly and attractive.
Comments
Console companiez ain’t gonna go for dis. If dey make deir consolez upgradeable den you’ll upgrade instead of buyin’ anotha console so dey’ll lose revenue to da tonz of little companiez dat’ll pop up offerin’ cheapa upgradez.
Game companiez wouldn’t be too ’appy about it eitha ’cos da big draw about developin’ titlez for a console is dat dere is no ’ardware compatibility to worry about like dere is wiv PC’z.
What you are describing is PC.
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Female Dwarf player: WOW, VG, WAR, DDO
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Due to the recent economic crisis and spending cuts the light at the end of the tunnel was turned off. Sincerely, God.
Lets add video screen to a radio and call it television!
<Mod edit>
Back to subject, it's true. Game companies have thought about it in the past and it's just better for business to keep making new consoles. A console will never be as powerful as a PC anyways and if it was people would call it a PC not a console.
I personally would love to see something like this and maybe one day a company will make one just to beat out other companies. The way i see it they could do this and still make consoles because number one they could make it where the new console allows new games that won't work on the old system no matter how much you upgrade and number two they could make it where theres a point where you can't upgrade it any further...still this takes away from the very concept of constant upgrades. Take a course in business economics and you'll understand
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Lmfao that some funny shit right there but sadly true lol,
Sorry OP think little harder next time.
Pretty much the direction that blade servers are going but for PCs, but having the whole unit being a computer instead of a rack of servers.
very different from a PC.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
PC/concole hybrids are easy.
Step one: Buy a console. I suggest those POS ones which Microsoft makes, as broken ones are cheap and extremely easy to find. Just find a buddy who bought one a few months ago, chances are it's broke by now and in his rage you'll get it dirt cheap, if not free.
Step two: Remove all the useless crap ( in other words, gut everything from inside ).
Step three: Insert all your nice PC gear inside.
Enjoy.
Lmfao that some funny shit right there but sadly true lol,
Sorry OP think little harder next time.
Actually you're observation is right on. My idea is a pc. And it's a console. After all, a console is a personal computer. The only thing differentiating a console is it doesn't have a web browser and it is not upgradeable.
Furthermore, the console maker doesn't make money off of the console sale itself. It makes money off the licensing to game developers. A longer cycle between console iterations means greater profitability as console component prices drop and manufacturing processes improve. Also, research and development costs could be spaced out over a longer period of time.
Next, if the upgrades could be manufactured by the console maker or by licensing the manufacture of upgrades to third parties, it would be an added source of revenue.
It would also be profitable for the game developers as they would not have to learn how to make games for a new console quite so often, saving money on research and development and development time.
When you start switching out GPU's and CPU's it stops being a "single system". The advantage of consoles is you can optimize everything and you know what all the parts are. You can use the memory precisely, and don't have to worry about some guy with a lower end system. You can utilize everything about the GPU because it is the same GPU on every system.
If they did what you suggested, it would lose these advantages. It would become the same as developing for PCs. Developers wouldn't be able to make the game for top end consoles because they would want the maximum user base, which generally means catering to the lowest common denominator. Then maybe adding in options for better quality settings... just like PCs. What you are suggesting isn't a hybrid of the two. It is a PC that forces you to only buy upgrades from Microsoft or Nintendo or Sony. At least if you get a gaming PC from Dell or whatever, you can get your upgrades where ever you want.
The whole point of a console from its early 8bit days is that you buy it and some games and it works off your TV. Thats it no fiddling about with software upgrades and no buying of new hardware parts.
What you describe is basically just a PC with a brand name [such as Playstation]. What you describe is NOT a console at all.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
When I made this post, I was thinking about why some people prefer console's over pc's and vice versa. That got me to thinking about the technical differences and commonalities, and the evolution of the pc and the console moving forward. The two can be differentiated by purpose: pc's have a multiplicity of uses while consoles have primarily one.
Both are evolving though, one becoming more like the other all the time. With pc's, the innovation seems mostly technical, driven largely by the gaming industry. But with new consoles being released every five years or so, the innovation for consoles seems more functional as more uses which were previously exclusionary to pc are being added. At some point, I believe, the two will merge into a more truly hybridized form.
And this led me to my post, as I considered what for the end user makes consoles more desireable. To me, the most desirable aspect of a console is I can put a game in my console's hard drive and it will run. It's easy and quick, and I can get right into my gaming without worrying about all the myriad compatibility issues that pc gamers face. The most desireable aspect of pc gaming on the other hand, is for me more software side....the games are a lot more sophisticated and fan made downloadable content extends the life of a game.
So then I decided to reverse things for a minute. Instead of functional innovation driving the evolution of console, what kind of technical innovation might be made. Already the precedent of upgradeablilty has been made with hard drives. What other things could be upgraded and at the same time retain that simplicity we associate with using a console. CPU's and GPU's came to mind immediately.
I wonder, if the upgrades were restricted to one developer with one upgrade solution per year or every other year. This would help mitigate the difficulty for developers.
Sigh, I dont think you realize the technical implications of changing hardware. HDD is a different matter entirely, it is just a data storage, not a data processing component.
On console, you are working with exactly given set of hardware, you can go for some really low level programming and adress the hardware directly and build around the advantage it will always be the same. As soon as you start having replaceable data processing parts, the code will have to take that into account, becomming less efficient. Also you would have to code all the various degrees of settings for various configurations, etc. And maybe the biggest issue of all is the fact that you cannot know the specifications of future hardware, thus the current firmware/OS needs drivers, leading to the console OS also having to be able to somehow get hose drivers, work with them, those may have modified interfaces leading of course to compatibility issues with the software, having to have middle layers and whatnot, etc etc etc... basically we arrive to what is the PC, a flexible platform of component build, where operating systems (that of course require extended set up and driver installation etc) provide the platform for other sofware and all the associated mess and freedom it provides. What I can see is the consoles getting more features, however that is just the matter of installed OS, you can put linux on any of them and use it for anything.
EDIT: To sum it, making a console upgradeable would ruin the very concept of consoles.
Subscribtions: EVE, SWTOR WOW, WAR, DDO, VG, AOC, COV, FFXI, GW, RFO, Aion
+plenty of F2P, betas, trials
Female Dwarf player: WOW, VG, WAR, DDO
.
Due to the recent economic crisis and spending cuts the light at the end of the tunnel was turned off. Sincerely, God.
I laughed so hard I almost fainted.
On the moon, nerds have their pants pulled down and they are spanked with moon rocks!