New PlayStation 5 details reveal how Sony plans to tackle the issues with backwards compatibility

Sony has already confirmed that the next PlayStation will have backwards compatibility, but that doesn't mean it's an easy process to implement.

What's next for console gaming has been a huge topic of discussion recently, especially with rumors that the Next Xbox will be making its debut during this year's E3. While Sony has already confirmed that backwards compatibility will finally be making its way to the next generation of PlayStation, that doesn't mean that they are blind to the legal and property issues that this feature offers. Luckily, a new patent has been revealed that shows off how they plan to tackle this particular functionality. 

Though the most recent patent to see the light of day was technically put through awhile ago, it's only recently been made public. "Differences in performance of the hardware components of a new device and a legacy device can cause errors in synchronization on the new device, which may cause a legacy application to crash or produce incorrect output when running on a new device architecture," reads the patent. "Such differences in performance can arise, e.g., from differences in hardware architecture between the new and legacy devices."

The patent also reveals how they plan on tackling old code and how that translates into the upcoming generation: 

"The performance of an application on a new device may be closely matched to the performance of that same application on the legacy device by tuning the operating parameters of the new device," the patent explains. "Examples of operating parameters include, among other things, the clock frequencies of the new device, the number of available general purpose registers (GPRs), instruction launch rates, and the like. The application may be run repeatedly on the new system while tuning its operating parameters to adjust the application-specific performance characteristics.

"After a sufficient number of tests on the new system one can analyze how the performance characteristics of the application on the new system converge as the operating parameters change. A new set of operating parameters can be created based on the convergence analysis. This process may be repeated until the operating parameters are set optimally for the application on the new system. To further optimize, one can adjust the execution of the new hardware to see if the application can be run faster on the new hardware without causing it to fail."

Just like with Xbox's backwards compatibility, the goal is to also enhance what those older games look and feel like and to make sure that happens, the developers need to pay close attention to how that old coding translates. 

A lot of rumors have been swirling that we'll be learning more about the PlayStation 5 in the near future, so stay tuned! 

H/T Prima Games

With an arguably unhealthy obsession with Dragon Age and Mass Effect, Liana is wildly passionate about all things in the gaming community. From shooters, to RPGs, if it's out - she's playing it.

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