Could be more RSX info...

[Brimstone]

Did you mean 8 GHz effective rather than 800MHz? (supposedly where they say XDR-2 will start) In addition to speed and micro-threading though, XDR-2 makes signaling improvements via adaptive timing, transmit equalizaton, and DRSL.

I mean it's just plain better, so if PS3 did use it well I think that would be great. I haven't heard of any companies ramping for it though. But if it's just the memory controller rather than the modules themselves (can that be?), maybe one of these recent Cell revisions takes advantage of it. Still if Rambus was saying 2007 in their press release, early/mid-2006 would signify a big departure from that.

Oh well whatever - cool information on the '3 year project' aspect of the Sony relationship either way.

Wel I think my intial comment on clock speeds is wrong. For XDR2 to have an effective rate of 8Ghz, the module must be clocked at 1 Ghz. The difference is probably similar as DDR/GDDR. GDDR is tweaked for higher speeds, and XDR2 is XDR tweaked for higher speeds with additional circuts for microthreading.


Macabre he didn't say interface though, but interfaces they would be recieving royalties from the PS3. He said something like the "the bus in CELL and other interfaces". You can listen to it around the 35 minute point in the call.

As far as who would supply the XDR2 if that should be the case, I think it would be Samsung. They haven't announced their latest license deal with Rambus yet, so they are probably still wrangling over all the details to get the lowest royalty rates.

 

[Carl B]

Wel I think my intial comment on clock speeds is wrong. For XDR2 to have an effective rate of 8Ghz, the module must be clocked at 1 Ghz. The difference is probably similar as DDR/GDDR. GDDR is tweaked for higher speeds, and XDR2 is XDR tweaked for higher speeds with additional circuts for microthreading.

Right exactly; the release said they'd start it off 8GHz, which would require 1Ghz modules and greater. That seems like a dramatic leap though from the current 3.2GHz effecive rate (400MHz) going on inside the PS3. Isn't the memory speed tied to the chip's frequency though in the case of Cell, XDR, and the FlexIO? So maybe that whole release is irrelevent in terms of the 8Ghz effective and there's a chance yet.

 

[Carl B]

Hey guys, looking for some insights/confirmation into some RSX related items if anyone can verify or lend their thoughts one way or the other.

1) Since RSX will initially be produced at 90nm it seems, will the wafer sizes at Nagasaki 2 and/or OTSS be 200mm or 300mm in diameter? I'm simply not aware of whether or not they have any 90nm 300mm wafer lines, or if 300mm lines will be exclusively 65nm.

2) Is OTSS to have an SOI line, and if not, does Toshiba source all of their Cell chips from the other two or have a SOI fab with a line dedicated to their own production? (I know that's not RSX related per se, but just curious)

3) Will Sony establish a non-SOI 65nm line outside of OTSS for RSX production (ie will Nagasaki have non-SOI 65nm lines), will RSX move to SOI at 65nm or beyond, and does the NUMA architecture of the chips prevent the creation of a unified device along the lines of EE+GS down the line?

We've discussed some of this stuff before, but I'm just trying to reach a more complete understanding of Sony's overarching fabrication situation going forward with PS3.

EDIT: Could've started a new thread with this I suppose, but hey whatever