PlayStation 4 is “Essentially a PC” in Terms of Tech

Tucked away behind a registration wall, Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter has heard from what he claims to be a reputable source that the upcoming Sony console—the PlayStation 4—is "essentially a PC" in terms of its technological make-up.

He writes that Sony and AMD are collaborating on the console's CPU, moving away from the PS3's Cell architecture to an x86 processor for the new console. He cites the Vita's architecture as a fundamental shift in the company's manufacturing of consoles.

"It's not about exotic, groundbreaking hardware anymore, it's all about creating the best possible games machine with an enviable set of development tools – and it's an approach that has already yielded results," he wrote. "While PlayStation Vita may lack a stand-out killer app, I still think that it's set the bar in terms of overall quality and quantity over and above any console launch I've seen in over 21 years in the business. Extrapolating that same philosophy towards PlayStation 4 makes a PC-style approach to Sony's next console seem very likely indeed."

For the doubters, it means the PlayStation 4 is pulling out all the stops with AMD and ATI integrated graphics. That architecture gives them a lot of mileage and room for more memory and better bandwidth, as there’s no bottleneck between the CPU and the graphics processor.

More information about Sony's new console is expected to be revealed at the upcoming E3 2012 in June.