Sony’s New Patent For Backward Compatibility

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Sep 11, 2013
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Patent Link

https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/web/PU/JPA_H31503013/23C0ECC1DA1FEA585B38A470480304CE


Translation:

Sony Japan has just registered a new patent that allows the retrocompatibility of the hardware with previous consoles. It is a system to be applied in a future machine, PS5, and that allows the CPU of the new console to be able to "interpret" the central unit of the previous machines. The author of the development was Mark Cerny, the architect who designed the PS4 structure, and the patent, which has been filed under number 2019-503013, briefly explains what it consists of.

The aim is to make the applications designed for the previous consoles (legacy device) run perfectly on the most powerful hardware, and is focused on eliminating the synchronization errors between the new consoles and the behavior of the previous ones (PS4, PS3, PS2 and PSX). For example, if the CPU of the new console is faster than the previous one, data could be overwritten prematurely, even if they were still being used by another component.

Thanks to the new system, PS5 would be able to imitate the behavior of the previous consoles, so that the information that arrives at the different processors is returned in response to the "calls" of the games. The processor is able to detect the needs of each application and behave as if it were the original "brain" of each machine, cheating the software. This technology does not prevent PS5 could also have additional processors to have compatibility with machines whose architecture is difficult to replicate, as in the case of PS2.

In this blog you can see the most detailed information of the patent, with the diagrams in Japanese. Yesterday we explained the SRGAN process that allows you to perform "remastering by emulation" (another of the elements that Sony has patented, and converts images in SD resolution in 4K using artificial intelligence.
 
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Saying PS5 would play every PlayStation game?

ok

Sure thing. MS already threw down the gauntlet with a fair amount of the previous generations games being BC. Sony making (hopefully) all of the previous gens BC is the next step.
 
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Btw a reminder from less than 2 years ago:

"When we've dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much," Sony's head of global sales Jim Ryan said this week to Time.

Understandable enough, but then he goes on: "That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games," he continued, "and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?"

Glad they changed their minds.
 
It sounds like they're trying to patent the idea of an emulator?

But I guess the big difference here is that it dynamically adjusts to specific hardware target power spec.

Hopefully they're putting this into action because my PS3 has been babied but if the internet is anything to go by, it's destined to fault (80GB MGS4 PS3 w/hardware emulation) and I'm lucky it's lasted this long.
 
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Funny all the people crediting MS when the PS4 was the only Sony console to not feature BC out of the gate.. well PS1 didn't either but that's obvious lol.
 
Funny all the people crediting MS when the PS4 was the only Sony console to not feature BC out of the gate.. well PS1 didn't either but that's obvious lol.

My comment was tongue in cheek. But I do think that MS showed Sony that there is value there. Even if MS used BC to bolster their library. Sony abandoned the feature and now looks to be bringing it back.

The improved visual features that MS had in their BC titles is something that I hope PS5 does as well.
 
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My comment was tongue in cheek. But I do think that MS showed Sony that there is value there. Even if MS used BC to bolster their library. Sony abandoned the feature and now looks to be bringing it back.

The improved visual features that MS had in their BC titles is something that I hope PS5 does as well.

Oh I know :) and it would be awesome if they could somehow improve games visually the way some Xbox 360 games are. I know they all get better texture filtering but honestly I don't notice that in the games that don't get the 4K upgrade.
 
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Funny all the people crediting MS when the PS4 was the only Sony console to not feature BC out of the gate.. well PS1 didn't either but that's obvious lol.

Didn't they also end up getting rid of it on later PS3s? Then doubled down with PS4.

MS gets a lot of praise for BC not simply because they have it, but because they iterate with it, update it and improve it over time even adding new features an functionality the previous systems never had and the added graphical capabilities are especially of note but what they did with FFXIII went above and beyond. That's what people, even non Xbox owners, tip the hat for.
 
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I hope Sony does the Enhanced BC as well, maybe even go a step further and allow users to set target resolutions themselves or break framerates at their own judgement, as well as texture filtering options; that'd be amazing.
 
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I hope Sony does the Enhanced BC as well, maybe even go a step further and allow users to set target resolutions themselves or break framerates at their own judgement, as well as texture filtering options; that'd be amazing.
I don't have any PS1, PS2 or PS3 games anymore (well besides any digital ones I may have bought on the PS3, but I was mostly disk). But if the PS5 brings over all my PS4 games, I am pumped.
 
Didn't they also end up getting rid of it on later PS3s? Then doubled down with PS4.

MS gets a lot of praise for BC not simply because they have it, but because they iterate with it, update it and improve it over time even adding new features an functionality the previous systems never had and the added graphical capabilities are especially of note but what they did with FFXIII went above and beyond. That's what people, even non Xbox owners, tip the hat for.

Yeah they did that's why I said launched with it :) The PS3 really ruined that for Sony, they had to basically include PS2 parts to have BC in the PS3 and it just wasn't worth the effort to try emulate PS3 on PS4.

I like that MS can improve some games with their BC, the 4K upgrade to games like The Witcher 2 and RDR make them worth playing, the ones that don't have that often times look really bad. The only complaint anyone could really have about XB1 BC is that it's not with every game but the fact that they have it on as many as they do is commendable.

I do think with the move to digital and the fact that games are generally at least 1080p these days more and more people are going to be demanding future consoles be BC, in the past you could trade your old games in when you moved on but with digital that's not an option and people will want to be able to carry their digital games along with them when they upgrade. Personally PS1/PS2 and even PS3 games carrying over don't interest me but PS4 games would.
 
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