PlayStation 4 developers can use flexible memory

PlayStation 4 developers will be able to use a mix of direct and flexible memory for making games, Sony has confirmed.

A report last week said that the PlayStation 4 would reserve 3.5GB of its 8GB of GDDR3 RAM for the OS–leaving 4.5GB to developers–with another 1GB of “flexible” memory potentially available for developers from the operating system’s share.

Sony’s statement, issued to Digital Foundry, said that “we would like to clear up a misunderstanding regarding our ‘direct’ and ‘flexible’ memory systems.”

“The article states that ‘flexible’ memory is borrowed from the OS, and must be returned when requested–that’s not actually the case.”

According to Sony, “‘Direct Memory’ is memory allocated under the traditional video game model, so the game controls all aspects of its allocation” whereas “‘Flexible Memory’ is memory managed by the PS4 OS on the game’s behalf, and allows games to use some very nice FreeBSD virtual memory functionality.”

“However this memory is 100 per cent the game’s memory, and is never used by the OS, and as it is the game’s memory it should be easy for every developer to use it,” added Sony.

The developer would not confirm whether the PlayStation 4 would indeed use 3.5GB of its memory for the operating system, or what functions any allocation of memory would be used for.