Big Blue talks up 45nm PlayStation 3 processor possibilities
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Higher clock speeds or a smaller power drain, Sony? It's no great surprise, perhaps, but Cell Broadband Engine chip co-developer IBM will produce a 45nm version of the processor, paving the way for smaller, cooler-running PlayStation 3 consoles.â¦
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Watch out, Nvidia, here comes... er... SpursEngine Toshiba will next week formally announce a processor based on the Cell chip that sits inside each Sony PlayStation 3 games console. The new CPU will be pitched not only at consumer electronics kit but set head-to-head with today's PC and Mac graphics chips.â¦
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Tokyo, Dec. 7 (Jiji Press)--Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it is developing a graphics processor with Nvidia Corp. of the United States for its planned new video game console.
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Cheaper chips for PS3 Sony and IBM have renewed their processor development partnership and agreed to co-operate on work to take the PS3's Cell chip into the 45nm era.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ is pulling out the heavy artillery in its quest to build custom chips for both telephony backbone and handheld wireless devices, announcing a processor family built with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that is usually reserved for server processors. By borrowing SOI technology from its line of Power server chips -- includingÂ the top-shelf Power6Â -- IBM will achieve a 30 percent performance gain compared to chips using standard CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology, the company said Tuesday. And by building it on a scale of 45-nanometer feature sizes, IBM will achieve higher performance than comparable 65nm chips. IBM will launch this Cu-45HP (high performance) custom chip in early 2008, intended for manufacturers of switches and routers as well as cellphones and portable gaming systems. IBM will design a customized version of the ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) for each new client platform, said Bernard Meyerson, an IBM fellow and chief technology officer for IBM's Systems and Technology Group. The company already builds ASICs for the telephony market, but the new design will allow it to create more powerful designs in less time and at lower cost, he said. To boost power-efficiency, IBM is using 45-nm architecture embedded DRAM (dynamic RAM) instead of SRAM (static RAM) in the chip. Although DRAM has three to four times more memory density than SRAM, the company has never before used it for on-chip data storage because it is "pathetically slow," Meyerson said. IBM solved that problem with a recent advance that improves DRAM read/write data access speeds. Chips run faster and use less electricity when they use data stored on the processor itself instead of fetching that data from another location on the circuit board, he said. Once it launches the new chip, IBM expects to quickly reach full manufacturing capacity. Although the chip uses a new combination of technologies, IBM already builds processors with each of the components, such as the SOI-based processors it makes for gaming consoles including Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii. Despite the new features, IBM is announcing the Cu-45HP at a challenging time in the global chip market. Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $19.9 billion in April, showing a decline from March as average selling prices continued to drop, according to a report released Monday by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). From January through April, sales were down by nearly 2 percent from the same period of 2006, the report said. The revenue slump occurred because prices have sunk faster than a modest rise in demand for consumer electronics. That consumer demand has bolstered the number of unit shipments in the market, but chip makers are collecting less money because of tumbling prices for many types of chips, including microprocessors, DRAMs and NAND flash, according to the SIA. Also on Tuesday, IBM announced new digital and analog semiconductors for mobile handsets and other wireless products. They include the SiGe BiCMOS 5PAe, a silicon-germanium-based analog product for making efficient power amplifiers in cell phones and WiMAX applications, the SiGe BiCMOS 6WL, an entry-level version of the company's existing technology for high-volume consumer electronics including cell phones and GPS (global positioning system) devices, and the CMOS 11LP, a product design to improve power efficiency in handset design. IBM is selling the 6WL design kits now, and plans to launch the other two products later in 2007. Â
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The chip that will power the PlayStation 3 is said to be up to 10 times faster than current processors.
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NVidia will supply the graphics chip for the successor to the PlayStation 2 games console being developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
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OpenPower line to make debut Monday as Big Blue looks beyond the chip's high-end niche, CNET News.com has learned.
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In response to a BetaNews inquiry over whether last Friday's announcement of new Barcelona server-class processors at frequencies up to 2.0 GHz for August release was as fast as we would see for the year, an AMD spokesperson told us faster models would be made available later in the year.
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At this morning's analyst conference, AMD executives said they may scale back some on R&D. But earlier in the week, partner IBM unveiled a plan that could help fill the gap: a way to rework existing 45 nm parts designs for 32 nm.
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Graphics processor types NVIDIA have revealed that they are working on the custom GPU for Sony&#39;s next console, which we tend to refer to as PlayStation 3. That means we know two things about the machine, the other being that it&#39;ll use the Cell processor
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As part of its cost-cutting effort, Sony may outsource PS3 chip production.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM has improved the power efficiency of two models of PowerPC processors, making an effort to strengthen its position in markets from cars and printers to networking and communications equipment. The PowerPC 750CL and PowerPC 970GX are both single-core chips built with a 90-nanometer process. Both chips reduce DC electricity leakage with thicker gate oxides and reduce AC switching power with higher thresholds, the company said. IBM made the change to reach a wider range of enterprise and consumer applications, said Ron Martino, director of Power Architecture Solutions in IBM's Technology Collaboration Solutions unit. The company already has a strong grip on certain sectors. It makes the processors for all three of the top gaming consoles: Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii. These improved chips could help it reach even further. The trend of power-efficient chips has already changed the notebook, desktop, and server markets. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hasÂ cited power efficiencyÂ for the reason that its Opteron server processors have outsold chips from Intel in recent months, and Intel says its new Core 2 Duo chips will alsoÂ use power efficiencyÂ to win back that market share. IBM's 750 CL is a 32-bit chip running at 400MHz to 1GHz, and is intended for high-performance embedded applications, including consumer electronics, storage and imaging. The 970GX supports both 32-bit and 64-bit applications running from 1.2GHz to 2.5GHz, making it appropriate for applications in high-bandwidth data processing or algorithmic computation. IBM also announced a roadmap of future products to improve power draw. Its CPC965 will act as a companion chip to the PowerPC 970 series, providing more efficient I/O connectivity. Its 460S is a 32-bit, synthesizable core with variable cache sizes, and its 464FP H90 and 464H90 are application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that can be manufactured either by IBM or by its partners Chartered Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics. The 464H90 will launch by the end of 2006, while the other three cores ship in the first quarter of 2007. The PowerPC 750CL and PowerPC 970GX are available Tuesday.
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Sony Corp.  will launch its  PlayStation 3 with an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive on June  16 in South Korea for 518,000 won ($556), offering the upgraded  version of its latest game console for the first time ever, the  Japanese electronics conglomerate said.
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Sony Corp. (6758.T) plans to lower the  production cost of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles by  using less expensive chips, aiming to turn the operations  profitable between September and next March, the Nikkei  business daily reported on Friday.
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The new PlayStation 3 isn't all about entertainment. That's the message Sony Corp. is trying to convey in announcing that the new game consoles &#151; as powerful as supercomputers &#151; can help Stanford University researchers analyze complex human protein structures and perhaps find cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and other ailments.
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Massively parallel, 64-bit POWER-based processor to debut at ISSCC