问
Now we're seeing some PS3 games here and a lot of people are saying they're not seeing a big difference between them and the Xbox 360.
Do you think the PS3 will be more powerful than 360? Or, is that [the games] just what it is?
Carmack: Well, this situation is not something that has a nice simple answer like that because the truth is that the PS3 has more peak performance and that's what Sony was looking for with the decisions they made; cell architecture, and to a lesser degree the video chip decision.
It gives it （PS3） more theoretical power. But what's going to matter is what you wind up delivering on the games. And I do think Sony made a less than optimal decision than Microsoft from the perspective of the game developers.
Microsoft chose to have symmetrical CPU's, have less of them, but you can program them all the same way.
微软选择的是对称型CPU（并发线程型CPU），数量少，但是你能够编程让这些（CPU 核心）同时运作。
Keely: Sony has this weird Cell architecture which there has been a lot of press about, but I hear its hard to program for..
问： SONY 关于它们这个怪异的 CELL CPU 架构设计本身谈的很少。 不过我们听说它很难编程。
Carmack: It's asymmetric. Where you have 1 processor with dual threads that are symetric on there -- where you do most of your work. But anything you want to spin off to the cells you have to break up into these small nuggets of work. For that you have to use a different compiler, different tool chain for..
Keely: So, bottom line, do you think it was a mistake?
问： 好， 归根结底， 你是否认为这（PS3 的CELL 架构设计）是一个错误？
Carmack: I do. I think the reasoning that saves them is that they have the dominant market position over Microsoft, and they can look at this and say -- developers are essentially forced to sweat blood to take advantage of Cell because its the dominant platform and they will win to some degree with that. There will be some developers that pour their heart and soul into this -- and make game development twice as difficult as it should be. Sony is hoping that having a higher peak performance and having some developers that will sweat bullets over this -- they may get better games out of it.
