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Old 02-09-2005, 03:16 AM   #1
5vz-fe
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Default Playstation 3 Processor

The Cell processor manufactured with a 90nm process will have 234 million transistors and a prototype die size of 221mm square.
By James Yu


Posted Monday, February 7th 2005


The next-generation Cell processor will consist of a single 64-bit Power processing core with eight synergistic processing units. Top engineers from IBM, Sony, and Toshiba made the disclosure at a press conference held at the opening of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The Cell triumvirate revealed last November that the processor would have a multicore architecture, but engineers did not reveal how many processing cores each Cell chip would have.


The Cell processor will power Sony's next-generation PlayStation 3 console.

The Cell processor will be at the core of Sony's soon-to-be-announced PlayStation 3 console system, and the chip will also find its way into several different applications that range from workstations to television sets.

The Cell processor will offer a tremendous amount of parallelism with its eight synergistic processing cores working in conjunction with the single Power control processor. SCEI vice president of microprocessor development Masakazu Suzuoki adds that the first Cell implementation only has eight synergistic cores, but the architecture is flexible enough to allow for additional cores. Current desktop processors, such as the Intel Pentium 4 and the AMD Athlon 64, only have a single processing core, but both companies plan to release dual-core desktop processors later this year.

The Cell processor manufactured with a 90nm process will have 234 million transistors and a prototype die size of 221mm square. The Intel Pentium 4 "Prescott" processor, by contrast, also uses the 90nm process, but it only has 125 million transistors and a 122mm square die size. Much of the Cell real estate is taken up by the multiple synergistic cores and a sizable amount of on-chip memory. The Cell has 512KB of L2 cache, and each synergistic processing unit has 256KB of cache memory.

The Cell uses Rambus XDR and FlexIO technology to move data in and out of the chip at speeds approaching 100 gigabytes per second. The XDR memory interface can push 30 gigabytes per second at 3.2GHz, and the FlexIO bus running at 6.4GHz has a maximum throughput of 72 gigabytes per second.

Even with the huge transistor count and large die size, the Cell development team has achieved clock speeds greater than 4GHz in internal testing. According to Jim Kahle, IBM Fellow and director of technology for the Design Center for Cell Technology, "We're not just going after the frequency race. We've pushed both frequency and parallelism at the same time." Even though the design group has demonstrated speeds greater than 4GHz, Kahle adds that it's ultimately up to the manufacturer to determine final clock speed, since the most-efficient clock speed, with regard to power consumption, won't be the maximum operating speed.

The Cell's multiple cores open up a variety of programming models in terms of thread assignment and resource management. The Power processor unit is capable of processing two threads, and each synergistic processor can handle a single thread each--for a total of 10 total concurrent threads--which introduces a new problem of determining how to best use all the processor resources.

According to Kahle, "We had a significant number of software engineers working on programming models for the Cell architecture. ... There are a number of different ways to approach the parallelism available in this chip, and we're going to make those available to people." The Cell team will develop the basic software models and then share the software design process with open-source communities to promote future development.

IBM will produce the processor using a 90nm manufacturing process in East Fishkill, New York, and Sony will manufacture the chip at its Nagasaki, Japan, fabrication plant using an advanced 65nm process.


http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-15015-1483-x-x-x[/i]
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Old 02-09-2005, 06:28 AM   #2
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i will wait for the Xbox 2
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Old 02-09-2005, 11:44 AM   #3
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I was reading bout the PS3. It will be on the E3 2005 and its supposed to outperform the XBOX.

Even if it doesnt, the backward compatibility with all previous PS gams and well.... GT4 being available ONLY for PS2 = me <3 PS
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Old 02-09-2005, 01:25 PM   #4
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Alot of games nowadays go multi platform....but GT4 is PS only......so I will be a sucker for Sony until they make GT series avaliable for other platforms(seriously doubt it tho).
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Old 02-09-2005, 01:55 PM   #5
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PS3 is looking pretty sick. I really can't wait to see both this and XBox Next unveiled at E3. I think I'll really have to wait to see how they both turn out before committing to buying one, but as of now I still think I'll be going the microsoft route.

IBM is gonna be loving this next generation of consoles. They're producing the processors for both the PS3 and XBox Next.
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Old 02-09-2005, 02:11 PM   #6
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I will wait for mother SEGA to return to the hardware world. PS1 was just a rip off of the SATURN.
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Old 02-09-2005, 03:21 PM   #7
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For the reasons quoted before... (GT4), I think the PS3 is my choice!!
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Old 02-09-2005, 03:56 PM   #8
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IBM processor and NVIDIA graphics, the PS3 will outperform the xbox 2 easily

It's the one im gonna get anyway
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Old 02-09-2005, 04:04 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by Blip
I will wait for mother SEGA to return to the hardware world. PS1 was just a rip off of the SATURN.
LOL, don't count on it!Although, in it's day, the Dreamcast walked all over the Xbox and PS2.

IBM processor and NVIDIA graphics, the PS3 will outperform the xbox 2 easily
Supposedly, the next Xbox is running some sort of two care system that was clocked at 9Ghz.

In the end, I really don't care which one is "better" as I'll probably and up with both of them. I put "better" in quotes because it really doesn't matter which system is more powerfull and such, it's the games that matter. The PS3 could be the worlds fastest and most powerfull console ever built, if it didn't have any good games, no one would buy it.
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Old 02-09-2005, 05:14 PM   #10
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ever wonder what will happen if Mr.Gates buy out Polyphony?
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Old 02-09-2005, 06:11 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by 5vz-fe
ever wonder what will happen if Mr.Gates buy out Polyphony?
I think you would be able to count on a large price increase!
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Old 02-09-2005, 06:13 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by 5vz-fe
ever wonder what will happen if Mr.Gates buy out Polyphony?
Polyphony is OWNED by Sony so no way that would happen! And from what I heard in Gamepro and all those other mags and shit I heard that Sony hired a few of the old Xbox developers or something and thats seriously gonna hurt Microsoft!
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Old 02-09-2005, 09:42 PM   #13
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Now Im on a serious debate here. I am close to buying a PS2, but now that PS3 will be shown at E3 2005 Im not sure if I want to waint or not. The thing is. Once PS3 comes out, then our trustful ppl in the underground world will produce chips to mod them.

As we all know, it takes quite some time and various versions of both PS and Chips to actually get a good modded PS. So assuming that PS3 comes out january 2006, Id probably have to wait until mid 2006 before buying a modded PS2. This means, NO GT3 till then? WTF!

What you guys think I should do?
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Old 02-09-2005, 09:49 PM   #14
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Both XboxNext and PS3 are gonna be sick. their processors are incredible, using that cell technology. I can't wait till they are released for testing. www.howstuffworks.com has a nice lil section on the Xbox chip.
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Old 02-10-2005, 12:52 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Pimp Racer
Originally Posted by 5vz-fe
ever wonder what will happen if Mr.Gates buy out Polyphony?
Polyphony is OWNED by Sony so no way that would happen! And from what I heard in Gamepro and all those other mags and shit I heard that Sony hired a few of the old Xbox developers or something and thats seriously gonna hurt Microsoft!
He was one of the guys in charge of the Xbox program. I forget his name, but I'm sure Microsoft made him sign all sorts of non disclosure agreements. He can't say anything, cause if it got back to M$, he'd be nailed to the wall.

Like I said earlier, I don't care which one is better, it's the games that matter. So, I'll probably end up with both. Maybe even the next Nintendo as well. It's the only current console I didn't buy! LOL

Demon, if I were you, I'd go to a gamestore and pickup a used PS2. You could probably get it for $70 or so. While the release date of the PS3 (which isn't known) is still a ways off, IMO, it's close enough to not pay full price for a new PS2. Besides, used ones are gauranteed to work anyway. Then save your pennies and buy the PS3 when it comes out sometime next year.
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