The only other thing I see would is it being a conflict of interest undermining the lower price. We all know that Sony is losing money off console sales while that loss is to be recovered from software sales.

On that note people who would buy clusters solely as a cheap academic supercomputers aren't benefiting Sony. These consoles sold at a loss won't earn that money back if used as clusters. With the $299 PS3 slim having this feature cluster alternatives would be even more widespread.

My point is Sony is made these newer units cheap so people would buy them to play games or buy services. If these units aren't being used in a way that is profitable it's not targeting the right audience. IMHO, By removing this feature it helps insure these cheap slim units are bought by real customers not conservative scientist.

yeah, like i said it's probably taken away because of majority.

it's great for the science/gov institutions though

It is supposed to yield better bus performance since there will be less information going there at once. This eliminates a possible bottleneck.

So what would happen if it caused a bottle neck?

Would it possibly hinder performance if the coding or engine was written wrong?

Ya, assuming I am actually right about what I said...

Suppose if the PS3 allowed development on all 7 SPEs(1 would still be reserved for the OS), then if all 7 SPEs were being used fully, then there would be lots of traffic on the fsb, which would cause a backup for the cpu and memory and probably the rsx as well. This might cause frequent frame rate drops. So using only 6 SPEs, would reduce this problem.

But like I said, I am not entirely sure on the accuracy of my above comment...

Oh So if there are no defects in the Cell/Be Processor in your PS3 and you know enough about coding and writing engines etc etc.. could you effectively hack past the hyper-visors set in Place and use all 8 SPE's and the one PPE for programing/research etc..

You would at least need to physically modify PS3 internals before doing that. I would imagine that disabling an SPE is probably done in the CELL itself.

@Finalfantasykid
Very nice article.

they should know that we are OG fans of VIII as it sold truckload as well. not as much as VII or X. I personally didn't like IX but X and VI are my personal fav.

Shadow Hearts 2 covenant is another game I love. I hope one day someone can make remake, I would be delighted

Final Fantasy VIII is great and you are always the first to defend it in the comments

Underrated comment. I used to hate that game so much that any time my siblings asked me to play it, I just picked Hom and shut myself down mid-match.