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Sony and AMD Detail Project Amethyst for a Future Console

Cerny says the advances are in simulation with a rollout to a next console expected in a few years.

Overview

  • An official PlayStation video features Mark Cerny and AMD’s Jack Huynh outlining three proposed technologies: Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression.
  • Neural Arrays are designed to let GPU compute units collaborate on larger screen regions to boost machine‑learning upscaling, denoising, and ray regeneration efficiency.
  • Radiance Cores are described as a dedicated hardware block for real‑time ray and path tracing, offloading traversal work to speed rendering and free CPU and shader resources.
  • Universal Compression aims to evaluate and compress all GPU data headed to memory, reducing bandwidth use to enable higher detail, better frame rates, and lower power draw.
  • Cerny says the work exists only in simulation and is planned for a future console in a few years, with AMD indicating the innovations will reach developers across platforms as media speculate this points to a PS6 timeframe around 2028–2029.