PS3 to pack some punch with new super chip.

lv619 · 08-02-2005, 10:40 PM

A joint IBM, Sony, Toshiba product could create some major headaches for companies like AMD and Intel.

Their new computer chip called "cell" is 10 times faster than anything on the market now.

The chips will eventually power televisions, computers, and other electronics but their first application will be the Sony Playstation 3, which comes out next year.

read more here.

hmmm... PS3 + super chip + GT4 = :sm_drool:

MAD · 08-02-2005, 10:42 PM

Drool indeed. This thing has been delayed more than GT4...it better be good.

I cant read it, you have to register and I CBF.

lv619 · 08-02-2005, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MADXF

Drool indeed. This thing has been delayed more than GT4...it better be good.

I cant read it, you have to register and I CBF.

I didnt have to register...

:

anyway heres the article... again

Quote:

New chip called a threat to Intel

IBM, SONY, TOSHIBA TEAM UP TO DEVELOP CELL PROCESSOR

By Dean Takahashi

Mercury News

IBM, Sony and Toshiba unveiled a new supercomputer-on-a-chip Monday that could disrupt Intel's dominance of the computer industry and change the nature of digital entertainment.

The Cell chip will first be used in Sony's PlayStation 3 video console next year, with Toshiba planning to use the Cell in digital television sets and IBM intending to put it in computer servers and work stations in the near future.

The partners say the first Cell chips, which can simultaneously juggle multiple computing tasks, will have 10 times the processing power of comparable Intel chips. Eventually, the technology could pack the power of a supercomputer in a handheld device.

That would mean consumers would be able to buy a machine that runs video games so realistically that players will feel like they are inside the animated world of, say, ``Shrek 2.''

``This is a shot across the bow for Intel,'' said Richard Doherty, an analyst at the Envisioneering Group, a consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y.

``Intel still uses an architecture that came from a calculator chip,'' he said. ``Cell comes from a clean sheet of paper, where the engineers had the freedom to design from scratch for machines that manipulate images.''

Analysts said Monday that the Cell design is a step forward in computer architecture because it balances speed, flexibility and low power consumption.

The Cell differs from an Intel chip, which in the current generation processes just one or two programs at a time. The Cell, by contrast, can independently work on 10 different programs simultaneously.

Each chip will contain the equivalent of nine processors. It will be able to process 256 gigaflops. A gigaflop is a billion floating-point operations a second.

Analysts said the design unveiled Monday might cost $70 or $80 to make.

The Cell alliance represents a threat to Intel, which wants to broaden its market reach from personal computers to consumer electronics and supercomputers.

The companies creating the Cell already have strong positions in those markets and can use the Cell to create faster machines that will thwart Intel's ambitions. Moreover, those consumer devices using the Cell will be so powerful that consumers may not need PCs in the future.

``Cell can be used for a wide array of applications,'' said Jim Kahle, a fellow at IBM. ``We have put together a number of breakthroughs, from virtualization that enables you to run multiple operating systems to high-speed communications with other Cells that gives you distributed computing.''

There is no indication that Intel has a response to the Cell chip in the works. On Monday, the Santa Clara chip maker, whose chips run 85 percent of the world's PCs, said it will begin selling PC microprocessors with two processors on a single chip by summer.

No one expects the new Intel chips to have anywhere near the processing power of the Cell, which will be made by IBM and Sony.

Intel spokesman Robert Manetta noted Monday that a new computing design requires a host of new software and programming tools to become useful.

And Intel executive Pat Gelsinger said in a recent interview that Sony has promised great things before, only to fall short: Sony's PlayStation 2 chip, dubbed the Emotion Engine, failed to live up to its promise to power a wide variety of consumer electronics.

For now, the Cell chip's potential is unproven, since Sony has not yet revealed the capabilities of its forthcoming PlayStation 3. The consumer electronics giant plans to disclose initial details of the video game console in late March.

The Cell project also will have a significant impact on Los Altos-based Rambus, which designed the techniques for keeping the Cell processor fed with data.

For every Cell chip, Rambus is expected to get a slice of the revenues as royalties.

Analysts were intrigued that the Cell uses IBM technology that enables it to run any operating system.

Kevin Krewell, editor of the Microprocessor Report, said that raises the possibility that Apple Computer, which already uses the PowerPC design upon which Cell is based, could use the new chips in future Macintosh computers. Of course, winning over Apple might be considered a small ambition for the IBM-Sony-Toshiba alliance.

``Cell really represents a supercomputer on a chip,'' Kahle said.

XplosiveR6 · 10-02-2005, 08:07 PM

multi-core chips will be a nessessity anyway within the next few years as we have reached the limit of single core chips, once the multi-core chips are released for pcs, they will kill the performance out of any PS3 anyway. AMD an Intel have been developing multicore/multitheaded chips for years as they know single core is at its end.