About the PS3 "Cell" Chip

[Lenny]

Sony recently talked about the PS3 "Cell" Chip at GDC.

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Sony Talks PS3 Cell at GDC

While much of their GDC presentation was cloaked in techno-babble and industry-speak, Sony reps Mark DeLoura and Dominic Mallinson underscored the paradigm-shifting approach Sony is taking with its future console.

“The goal for the developers is to create the next generation of entertainment,” declared Mark DeLoura, Manager of Developer Relations, Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Sony, IBM, and Toshiba co-developed and unveiled the specs on the Cell chip in early February. The 4 GHz architecture is comprised of a 64-bit Power processor core, which is surrounded by eight Synergistic Processor Units (which themselves house four Floating Point Units), for a chip capable of delivering 256 gigaflops at 4 GHz.

According to Dominic Mallinson, Director, Sony Computer Entertainment America R&D, “We can run multiple operating systems on the chip at the same time.” He later added, “Each operating system can protect the others from crashes or security problems.”

Mallinson and DeLoura also detailed that unlike the PS2, PS3’s Cell technology will allow designers to program for it in more complex languages, such as C/C++.

Additionally, the Cell will support Collada XML for PS3’s art assets interchange, and the OpenGL ES applications programming interface for 3-D graphics. A partnership with NVIDIA will see the graphics card maker begin producing PS3 GPU by the end of 2005.

In a January interview with Xbitlabs.com, NVIDIA corporate marketing head David Roman said, “This is the next generation GPU [...] It will support DirectX 9, Shader Models 3; it will be the most feature-rich, the most powerful GPU that we’ve ever created.”

Sony’s GDC presentation comes just a day after the news that top members of Sony’s high command will get the first look at the PS3 in action during a closed door presentation in Japan next week.

The GDC has been rife with talk of those rumors, but alas, no one from SCEA is saying or denying anything.

http://www.ps3portal.com/?view=article&article=88

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This chip sounds amazing...

Apparently there will be a PS3 on show at E3...so hopefully, the nearer we get to E3, the more info about the PS3 we will find...and then after E3...well, who knows?

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Links to other PS3 threads (made by me):

NVidia to power Sony's Playstation 3 (http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34884)
PS3 News (http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35618)
This can't be good --> Sony and IBM having Cell problems (http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35740)

[D3V]

I'm guessing that the whole system will be unveiled at E3, they're just waiting for Xbox to make a move or maybe even Gamecube to release theirs, I'm guessing all three may show up at the E3 this year, I will definately be watching closely.

[Raziel]

Lenny, I'd be genuinely shocked if Sony didn't do a complete unveiling of the PS3 at this year's E3.

First, they need to to take the wind out of Microsoft's sails. Xenon is being launched this winter, and they're Sony's biggest competition at the moment. It would be downright stupid for Sony to come to this year's E3 without revealing a good-sized chunk of info about the PS3. They need to do so in order to make their userbase say "okay, wow, instead of buying Xenon this year, I'll be waiting until 2006 for the Sony console."

Second, Sony has never been a company to lay back and watch their competitors' moves before acting. They have always been the aggressor, and as such, it would be a complete characteristic 180 for them to wait and see what Microsoft or Nintendo ends up doing. That's exactly how Nintendo lost so much market-share to Sony, and they'd be morons to repeat the behavior that failed their competitors.

Come May, you'll know exactly what the PS3 is and what it's capable of. However, don't go getting all of this "Cell" hype and the reality of the PS3 confused. The fact is, Sony is not developing the Cell for the PS3, they're developing the PS3 for the Cell. It's an entirely new type of processor chip that they intend to start using in all of their hardware. The version of the chip that the PS3 will get is going to have nowhere near the maximum specs that the PR quotes claim, because it would be too expensive to stick such a powerful processor in a videogame console. It will still be impressive, it will still be powerful, but it will not be cooking your toast and shooting down satellites because the PS3 is not going to get the most powerful version of the chip.

On top of that, I'd be taking anything that Sony's PR reps say with a grain of salt. Remember all the bullshit they were spewing before the PS2 launched? All the overblown hype about the Emotion engine and how terrorists in Iraq were using PS2's as missile-guidance systems? Sony likes to overinflate their claims. Don't take everything they say at face-value.

[Lenny]

That kinda sounds like you're trying to lay into me somehow...

I posted this because I found it interesting, and thought that others would like to know about it, as it is revealing something about the PS3...I don't see how I'm getting

all of this "Cell" hype and the reality of the PS3 confused

I'm just posting interesting things...

[Raziel]

Lenny, if I was attacking you, it would be far worse than this. It wouldn't "sound like" I was "trying" lay into you. You'd be laid into and you'd know it.

All I was doing was giving you a heads up. I was trying to do you a favor by giving you some insight into seeing through Sony's penchant for bullshit PR. They're trumping up the Cell to be the second coming of Jesus, and while it actually might be a huge technological leap forward, I can guarantee you that the version of the Cell chip that the PS3 gets is going to be one of the lowest-powered and most cost-efficient models they produce.

That's all I'm saying. Not everything I post is a flame, dude. Chill.

[D3V]

He wasn't attacking you at all, just stating what he thought sony would do at E3, and I agree totally with it.

It isn't in their nature or history or whatever to not say much about the E3, they might just go out and show off everything that it is possible of, most likely.

[Raziel]

Witholding information is Nintendo's route, not Sony's. While I like surprises, it's not a very good busniess decision to keep everything a secret until the last moment. Sony understand this, and they understand that if they want a good shot at keeping Microsoft a distant 2nd in marketshare, they need to really beat the hell out of them at E3. They need to make potential Microsoft-buyers say to themselves "eh, it's too early for me to be buying a new XBox. I'll wait for the PS3." Their best bet is to show the public what they've got as soon as they can, and the best place to do that is E3.