While electronics makers have launched some products that offer a glimpse of the networked living room, the true promise of IPv6 may depend on a powerful new microprocessor, code-named Cell.
Sony is working with Toshiba and IBM on Cell, a processor that is expected to be up to 10 times more powerful than conventional chips and able to shepherd large chunks of information through the network.
Sony has said Cell--due to start test production in early 2005--will power the next-generation PlayStation game console, which will likely double as a home server, as well as other digital home electronics.
"In the post-war era, we saw the wide spread of television, which is one-way communication. Then, in the 1980s, came video games, which are two-way and interactive. Cell might be able to take us somewhere beyond TVs and video games,'' said Koichi Hariya, senior analyst at Mizuho Securities.
