Sony announces new ‘Amethyst’ partnership with AMD to develop machine learning technology in games
- Chief architect of the PS5 and PS5 Pro, Mark Cerny, has announced a new partnership between Sony and AMD codenamed ‘Amethyst’
- The first goal is to create “a more ideal architecture for machine learning”, and to develop a high-performance set of CNNs for game graphics.
- Cerny said this partnership is “multi-year” but we shouldn’t “expect a huge hardware announcement to come out of this immediately”
PlayStation console architect Mark Cerny has announced a new partnership between Sony and AMD codenamed ‘Amethyst’ to develop machine learning technology across devices.
Mark Cerny, chief architect of the PS5 and PS5 Pro, presented one technical seminar yesterday, with a deep dive into the mid-generation console and the new PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) technology.
During the presentation, Cerny also revealed that Sony will continue its current partnership with AMD – which is already working together on the PS5 and PS5 Pro GPUs – to develop machine learning in games in a new project called ‘Amethyst’.
“With Amethyst, we have embarked on a new long journey, combining our expertise with two goals in mind,” said Mark Cerny.
“The first goal is a more ideal machine learning architecture. Something capable of general-purpose neural network processing, but especially good at the lightweight CNNs needed for game graphics and something that focuses on achieving those holy grail of fully fused networks.”
Cerny explained that the second goal is to develop “a series of high-performance CNNs for game graphics in parallel” to increase graphics capabilities.
“Both SIE and AMD will be able to independently draw from this collection of network architectures and training strategies, and these components should be critical in increasing the richness of game graphics and enabling more extensive use of ray tracing and path tracing,” he said.
Cerny also spoke Digital foundry in a question and answer session following the presentation to discuss more about the AMD partnership. The developer said it’s a “deep collaboration” that is “multi-year,” but that we shouldn’t “expect a huge hardware announcement immediately from this.”