Toward Future Computer Entertainment Systems

Abstract

I. THE BIRTH OF COMPUTERSSixty years have passed since the birth of ENIAC, utilizing over 18,800 vacuum tubes; 35 years have passed from the birth of the world's first microprocessor the "4004", integrating more than 2300 transistors. During these years, dramatic advances have been made in semiconductor process technology. Today, the most advanced microprocessor integrates several hundreds of millions of transistors on a single silicon chip, and boasts computing power a million times greater than that of the first microprocessor. Also, thanks to advances in semiconductor process technology, downsizing of chips has progressed, making it possible for PCs to excel in various applications, and significant improvements have been made in computing. II. REAL-TIME COMPUTINGThe main thrust of general-purpose computers is to process various and broad office applications, precisely and efficiently. Realtime responsiveness is generally not important. As well, software systems for general-purpose computers became more and more complicated, "comfortable" operation that was natural in analog and mechanical systems has been gradually lost. Even with a PC that incorporates the latest microprocessor and memory system, users are frustrated by the computer system stalling when accessing large files such as encountered in moving images, and even worse, the system itself sometimes freezes. One of the reasons for such performance degeneration is that both microprocessors and operating systems have made continuous efforts to downsize existing systems, while coping with the inherited architectures of traditional main-frame computers. Today, a wide range of applications can be realized by software solutions on general-purpose computers instead of by dedicated hardware; thus many hardware solutions are being taken over by computer systems. This is a rational progression, brought about by technology. Nevertheless, as a result of operation becoming more complicated, and real-time responsiveness largely disappearing, instinctive and intuitive behaviours expected by human beings become more and more absent. The user is compelled to read through hundreds of pages of manuals to uncover procedures and protocols, or to attend special computer schools. However, such knowledge, however obtained, soon becomes outdated. This is one of the causes for human hesitation in adopting computers.On the other hand, when real-time responsiveness is emphasized, there are two elements that a human being can intuitively sense; One is the seamless continuity of motion that a human being cognitively feels to be real; and the other is the discernable predictability of the response time between action and reaction. Thus, currently, the frame rate required to allow consecutive still images to be perceived as a moving image is 24 frames per second, in the case of film, and 50 to 60 frames per second, in the case of NTSC/PAL TV systems. In the future, frame rate will be enhanced to become even higher for improving the fidelity of "expression". Researchers report that hum...

Chip Power Scaling in Recent CMOS Technology Nodes

“…Its power at constant frequency was dropped from 23 W to 0.5 W (Table 2) during this migration, which corresponds to an average factor of 0.72 drop in power per node, i.e. (1-0.72) 3 , for α and β values of approximately 0.7× [7]. The slightly higher amount of power scaling at the product (microprocessor) level was achieved through a combination of technology and circuit optimization.…”

“…SONY PlayStation 2 chip power in 250 nm node, and after migration through 3 nodes, in 90 nm node[7].…”