Last week I sat down with executives from PlayStation and AMD to talk about their multiyear collaboration and what they're hoping to achieve on the PlayStation 5 and beyond. During this intimate dinner, I spoke with Mark Cerny, lead architect on PS5 and PS5 Pro at Sony Interactive Entertainment, alongside Jack Huynh, SVP, GM, Computing and Graphics Group at AMD.
Sony PR said the conversation wouldn't touch any next-gen console topics but, per our discussion, future and next-generation hardware was a common phrase. It's hard to see how these advancements won't find their way onto a possible PS6 or even a dedicated PlayStation handheld (a standalone, unlike the PlayStation Portal that's tethered to a PS5 console).
Sony
What is Project Amethyst? Sony and AMD's AI collaboration for gaming
The big topic of the dinner was Project Amethyst, which was briefly revealed during a PS5 Pro Technical Seminar late last year. Amethyst's goal, which began development in 2023 when the PS5 Pro was largely complete, is to use AI and machine learning to make games look and run better.
Amethyst combines what AMD learned from its RDNA road map with SIE's use of PSSR, or PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, on the PS5 Pro to create a more ideal architecture for machine learning. The aim is to support a wide library of models that will help developers improve their games.
"[Amethyst] will support ChatGPT, if that's what the developers want," Cerny said. "That's not what we're working on, we're working [on] networks which know about detail and pixels and edges in order to stretch the capabilities of the hardware as far as possible."
Why Amethyst for a codename? It's a combination of PlayStation blue with AMD red, creating Amethyst purple. This synergy was embodied by a 100-pound, split amethyst statue displayed in the corner of our dining room.
"Machine learning-based processing is the future," Cerny told me. With Amethyst, Sony and AMD are aiming for "fewer pixels, prettier pixels coupled with machine leaning libraries to increase resolution or add frames or assist in various ways with ray tracing."
How machine learning will improve the PS5 Pro and future PlayStation consoles
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