Cell chip nears completition

Sony's early demand for chips will be in the ''Tens of millions'' for Playstation 3, said Len Jelinek, analyst with iSuppli Corp., a market research firm in El Segundo, Calif. ''The kids are going to want them ... when it hits the market.''


yeah 30mil ps3's for the first year. :)

so where the f*ck is poughkeepsie ? next to Shelbyville and southpark? :LOL:
 
I guess there will be more then one cell chip in a PS3, maybe that's why they need tens of millions of them.

Fredi
 
After reading the articles I'd like to add one thing:

I think that Sony's ability to sell millions of consoles in just a few months from launch is key to the power of Playstation 3. They can very well afford to make the most powerful hardware without fear of costs, knowing that they can crush the competition exploiting the hype surroinding the machine. Don't you think?
 
You assume that there will be as much hype surrounding PS3 as there was hype in regards to PS2, which I don't think can be taken for granted. It will become increasingly difficult for consumers to recognize advances in the audio-visual department and the names of the games will remain largely the same. I actually expect a not-so furious start for all next gen consoles.
 
Well, of course that's up to Sony. In fact, knowing that they can sell millions and millions of units on hype alone, *could* be key to engineer a console above the competition and hype to the moon and beyond. But of course, that could not be the case. We'll know soon enough...

Reason would suggest to be cautios, and that this could end up just another inflated, overhyped game machine. On the other hand, Microsoft's menace and the recurrence of PS3 release with the 60th year for Sony makes me confident they won't disappoint.
 
I don't understand why Sony is going to release the PSP without using CELL architechture in it. The whole idea is to create a flexable architechture that is low power and higher performance. After all the R & D, whats would be the big deal delaying it until 2005? Although with the lack of real hardware shown for the PSP for a while now, I'm kind of suspicious the PSP will get a CELL based processor.
 
Devourer said:
Reason would suggest to be cautios, and that this could end up just another inflated, overhyped game machine. On the other hand, Microsoft's menace and the recurrence of PS3 release with the 60th year for Sony makes me confident they won't disappoint.

"another inflated, overhyped game machine" ?!?

Drop the hype BS. It's juvenile and irrelevant.

And the 'Microsoft's menace,' whatever the hell that is supposed to be, or anniversaries have nothing to do with Sony's console plans.
 
I would like to know the reason behind the fact that first CELL based chips production has moved from Fishkill to a new fab.
Maybe knowing some details about this change (like different fabs..different tech involved..) will give us some more details about CELL.

ciao,
Marco
 
Tuttle said:
"another inflated, overhyped game machine" ?!?

Drop the hype BS. It's juvenile and irrelevant.

I was talking about whoever thinks Cell will be evetyrhing Sony promises it will be.

Tuttle said:
And the 'Microsoft's menace,' whatever the hell that is supposed to be, or anniversaries have nothing to do with Sony's console plans.

Well, if Microsoft competition has got nothing to do with Sony's PS3 plans, I don't know don't know what has.
 
nAo said:
I would like to know the reason behind the fact that first CELL based chips production has moved from Fishkill to a new fab.
Maybe knowing some details about this change (like different fabs..different tech involved..) will give us some more details about CELL.

It's my understanding that Sony has exclusive rights to purchase all Cell based processors for some initial period. I'd consider it possible -- before we start conspiring about a change -- that the initial volume will come from this burst capability out of Oita and Nagasaki (perhaps E. Fishkill proper) in 2005 with E. Fishkill 323A coming online shortly thereafter in 2006? I hate to agree with Doherty, but the man maybe right. Demand will be high and continuous for the architecture, between PS3, CE and IBM's low-end server line.

It would also be neat if someone could explain how you mix-load an IC. Say, if you have Nagasaki and E. Fishkill producing 65nm parts on sSOI substrates with Oita producing 65nm DRAM CMOS parts -- what does this seeming division imply?
 
nAo said:
Maybe knowing some details about this change (like different fabs..different tech involved..) will give us some more details about CELL.

45nm or not 45nm, that is the question. :devilish:
 
Vince said:
It would also be neat if someone could explain how you mix-load an IC. Say, if you have Nagasaki and E. Fishkill producing 65nm parts on sSOI substrates with Oita producing 65nm DRAM CMOS parts -- what does this seeming division imply?
umh..Could it imply that memory will not be embedded with logic? :)
 
nAo said:
umh..Could it imply that memory will not be embedded with logic? :)

I guess what all depends on how you mix load a DRAM onto an SOI substrate, doesn't it? ;)

Appearently, from what I've gathered, the problem is that DRAM implimented on SOI has to deal with passgate leakage, which means that non-arbitrary data patterns can cause the cell to discharge. But the benefits of SOI are to great to pass up on for logic. But Sony wants eDRAM. Sony seeks way around this. They seem to have found an absolute (and whats the word for 'greater-than-sum-of-parts'?!?) solution with Toshiba's FBC. But, as I contend, they want to launch earlier than most believe and this necessitates 65nm.

Going back to 2002, Okamoto discussed in public and private about mixed-loading DRAM onto an SOI substrate with logic. From what I gather, this patterned-SOI/Mixed-loaded process entails building the DRAM on bulk Si (eg. OTSS's CMOS5; 65nm 0.11um2 cell) and then the actual logic on an sSOI substrate with all the low-K and such (eg. STI's 11S process: 65nm, PD-SOI, Low-K).

So, the question is how do you physically do this? And once we find out we can make some interesting propositions.
 
I don't understand why Sony is going to release the PSP without using CELL architechture in it. The whole idea is to create a flexable architechture that is low power and higher performance. After all the R & D, whats would be the big deal delaying it until 2005? Although with the lack of real hardware shown for the PSP for a while now, I'm kind of suspicious the PSP will get a CELL based processor.

because PSP has been in development from probably 2000, all the way to 2004. during which time, Cell was not close to being ready as Cell based processors are being made for products for the 2006 timeframe, and for the higher end. a Cell-based PSP probably couldn't come out until late 2006 or early 2007.

I'm sure PSP 2 will use Cell architecture.
 
passerby said:
Some observations:

the next generation PlayStation system won't be the debut product for the Cell.
Interesting, look forward to see how it works.

Cell-based contents-creation workstation, maybe?

passerby said:
Production on Cell is expected to start next year, marking Toshiba's 130th anniversary.
:oops: 130 years???!!!

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/csr/en/policy/service.htm
Toshiba was founded in 1875 when Hisashige Tanaka opened a workshop to produce telegraphic equipment in Tokyo.

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/worldwide/about/history.html
Toshiba’s early history has two strands: 1875 saw the establishment of Tanaka Seizo-sho (Tanaka Engineering Works), Japan’s first manufacturer of telegraphic equipment. Its founder, Hisashige Tanaka (1799 – 1881), was well known from his youth for inventions that included mechanical dolls and a perpetual clock. Under the name Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works), his company became one of Japan’s largest manufacturers of heavy electrical apparatus. In 1890, Hakunetsu-sha & Co., Ltd. was established as Japan’s first plant for electric incandescent lamps. Subsequent diversification saw the company evolve as a manufacturer of consumer products. In 1899, the company was renamed Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co.).

In 1939, these two companies, leaders in their respective fields, merged to form an integrated electric equipment manufacturer, Tokyo Shibaura Denki (Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd.). The company was soon well known as ‘Toshiba,’ which became its official name in 1978.
 
passerby said:
Some observations:

the next generation PlayStation system won't be the debut product for the Cell.
Interesting, look forward to see how it works.

Unless there is something else in the works sooner, I believe it should be the Cell based workstations as the flagship device for the new chip line.
 
If Cell workstation with Linux, I'll probably replace all of my Linux base PCs with it. But have to see the performance first.
 
Although with the lack of real hardware shown for the PSP for a while now, I'm kind of suspicious the PSP will get a CELL based processor.
It won't.
PSP's processor name is pretty funny though :p
 
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