Playstation 3

[grimm]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Feb 8 2005, 09:15 AM
PlayStation 3 processor unveiled

The chip has been many years in development
The Cell processor, which will drive Sony's PlayStation 3, will run 10-times faster than current PC chips, its designers have said.
Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, unveiled the chip on Monday.

It is being designed for use in graphics workstations, the new PlayStation console, and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip.

The chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 GHz, the firms said.

By comparison, rival chip maker Intel's fastest processor runs at 3.8 GHz.

Details of the chip were released at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.

The new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between Intel and the Cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products.

The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006, while Toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year.

IBM has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year.

'Multicore' chips

Cell is comprised of several computing engines, or cores.

A core based on IBM's Power architecture controls eight "synergistic" processing centres.

In all, they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences, compared with two for current Intel chips.

CELL SPECS

Faster than 4 GHz
256 billion calculations per second
2.5MB of on-chip memory
Able to shuttle data to and from off-chip memory at speeds up to 100 gigabytes per second,
234 million transistors


Why the Cell will get the hard sell
Later this year, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices plan to release their own "multicore" chips, which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once.

The Cell's specifications suggest the PlayStation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems.

"Any new technology like this has two components," said Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Meta Group.

He said: "It has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it.

"Then there's the reality of how it's really going to be used, which generally is several levels down the chain from there."

Mass market

While the PlayStation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use Cell, the chip's designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications, from servers to mobile phones.

Initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console, however, because the first version of the Cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan.

And while marketing speak describes the chip as a "supercomputer" - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers.

IBM said Cell was "OS neutral" and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if Microsoft's Windows was among those tested with the chip.

If Cell is to challenge Intel's range of chips in the marketplace, it will need to find itself inside PCs, which predominantly run using Windows.

That sort of chip would make sense for high end gaming... but just like the PS2, you are going to have some lag... new games that take advantage of the faster rendering will be a 6 mos to a year off the release of the console.. most of the people that went out and bought a ps2 right away, ended up playing ps1 games on it until the media caught up.. remember, sony doesnt make the games, EA, Sega, etc make the games.. and no software side is going to jump into the market until they see if the demand was there. Remember, the dreamcast was the end of Sega Consoles for that reason.

The portable, PSP will be the hot sell this next christmas. ive seen demos, and it looks just like the ps2. im not much of a handheld video game player, hell i barely play my xbox or ps2 at home, but something that small with that good of graphics would be cool. wonder how hot or how long it will run.


this is a different subject entirely, but why the fuck dont ALL airlines have at LEAST a power supply in each seat? that is one thing that has always pissed me off. Wireless internet and Satellite TV are around the corner, but a cigarette lighter plug is WAAAY too hard