GScube
Encyclopedia
The GScube was a hardware
tool released by Sony
intended for use in CGI
production houses consisting of a custom variant of sixteen PlayStation 2
motherboards running in parallel
. It was unveiled in 2000 at SIGGRAPH
; the name "GSCube" is short for Graphics Synthesizer Cube. It was used for two projects, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
and the film incarnation of Resident Evil.
According to some sources, they were all sent back to Sony in Japan
and were subsequently dismantled. They were used for prototyping visual rendering in Final Fantasy, The Matrix
and Antz
, as well as in a flight simulator
. Although the GSCube had good rendering capability, they had a major bottleneck in connecting to external computers to transfer content.
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
tool released by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
intended for use in CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
production houses consisting of a custom variant of sixteen PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
motherboards running in parallel
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
. It was unveiled in 2000 at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
; the name "GSCube" is short for Graphics Synthesizer Cube. It was used for two projects, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film and also holds the record for the most...
and the film incarnation of Resident Evil.
According to some sources, they were all sent back to Sony in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and were subsequently dismantled. They were used for prototyping visual rendering in Final Fantasy, The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
and Antz
Antz
Antz is a 1998 American computer animated action adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It features the voices of well-known actors such as Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, and Danny Glover as...
, as well as in a flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
. Although the GSCube had good rendering capability, they had a major bottleneck in connecting to external computers to transfer content.
Technical Specifics
- 16 × Emotion EngineEmotion EngineThe Emotion Engine is a CPU developed and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba for use in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console, as well as early PlayStation 3 models sold in Japan and North America...
CPUs clocked at 294.912 MHz - 2 GB of DRDRAM Rambus main memory (16 × 128 MB)
- (128 MB was a common memory allocation on devkits vs. the 32 MB on shipping units)
- Memory Bus Bandwidth 50.3 GB/s (3.1 GB/s × 16)
- Floating Point Performance 97.5 GFLOPS (6.1 GFLOPS × 16)
- 16 × "Graphics Synthesizer "I-32" Graphics Processors clocked at 147.456 MHz
- 512 MB of eDRAM Video Memory (16 × 32 MB)
- (The "I-32" Graphics Synthesizer was a custom variant that contained 32 MB of eDRAM instead of the typical 4 MB)
- eDRAM Bandwidth 755 GB/s (47.2 GB/s × 16)
- Pixel Fill Rate 37.7 GB/s (2.36 GB/s × 16)
- Maximum Polygon Drawing Rate 1.2 Gpolygons/s (73.7 Mpolygons/s × 16)