IBM announces 65nm Cell production

one

Unruly Member
Veteran
About time.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21222.wss
Armonk, NY - 12 Mar 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that the company has begun producing a new, 65 nanometer (nm) version of the Cell Broadband Engine at IBM's state-of-the-art East Fishkill, New York microchip production facility.
The revolutionary Cell chip, jointly developed by IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba, is effectively a supercomputer-on-a-chip, providing breakthrough performance for consumer electronics, medical imaging, design engineering and other graphics-intensive applications. In addition to serving as the digital heartbeat of Sony Computer Entertainment’s PLAYSTATION®3, the chip also appears in IBM’s BladeCenter servers.

A team of computer scientists from IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba has collaborated on the development of the Cell microprocessor at a joint design center established in Austin, Texas, since March 2001.
 
Any news on the area and wattage of the 65nm Cell ?

They should shrunk the physical size of the PS3, quickly, if they want to save their Japanese market.
 
The original article nor this thread implied anything about a 65nm Cell in a PS3.
If this thread wasn't implying 65nm Cell for PS3, what's it doing in a console forum? ;)

Of course it's implying that. The question is when will PS3 get 65nm. You're link says they're already producing 65nm Cells. Presumably that'd be in conjunction with the loss of the EE from the new revison destined for Europe's shores, rather than 2 revisions in close succession.

Will this be apparent on the mobo? Will the package see a shrink along with the die, or is it constrained by package size because of pin count?
 
I was replying to V3, he brought the PS3 into and I was just trying to clarify that IBM != Sony.
 
Will this be apparent on the mobo? Will the package see a shrink along with the die, or is it constrained by package size because of pin count?
The change will also be apparent in the size of the power supply unit I think.
 
Well, in about ten days I could potentially find out whether or not the 65nm versions made it into the PAL PS3. ;) If the shop I ordered gets some, it seems that I managed to get myself in a good position on the preorder list as I picked up on the preorders in that shop on the first day (which is because I pass it every day on my way back from work). Note to self: take a day off on the 23rd ... :p
 
Well, in about ten days I could potentially find out whether or not the 65nm versions made it into the PAL PS3. ;) If the shop I ordered gets some, it seems that I managed to get myself in a good position on the preorder list as I picked up on the preorders in that shop on the first day (which is because I pass it every day on my way back from work). Note to self: take a day off on the 23rd ... :p

40.000 PS3´s was brought into scandinavia a few days ago.. lets find out where and rip them apart! :)
 
What big difference does a 65nm Cell make to the end consumer at this point in time though? The PS3 is quiet when running hard, almost completely silent when not, has no widespread problems with overheating and crashing and has an internal PSU. What advantages does the consumer get?
 
What big difference does a 65nm Cell make to the end consumer at this point in time though? The PS3 is quiet when running hard, almost completely silent when not, has no widespread problems with overheating and crashing and has an internal PSU. What advantages does the consumer get?


If they can shrink the cooling solutions enough they may create a new form factor unit that takes up less space. Other than that, power consumption and heat generation (even if it runs quiet/cool, it still has to displace a lot of heat).

Nite_Hawk
 
What big difference does a 65nm Cell make to the end consumer at this point in time though? The PS3 is quiet when running hard, almost completely silent when not, has no widespread problems with overheating and crashing and has an internal PSU. What advantages does the consumer get?
Generally none unless Sony adapt the rest of the machine to accomdate the changes. There's a chance they'll reduce the cooling solution if they can to save on money there. If the cooling system remains the same, perhaps the fun will run a little slower? Generally the benefits are to Sony's pockets, and not the consumers, the same as other consoles getting better process tech. The only time we benefit is quieter machines and cheaper machines.
 
Generally none unless Sony adapt the rest of the machine to accomdate the changes. There's a chance they'll reduce the cooling solution if they can to save on money there. If the cooling system remains the same, perhaps the fun will run a little slower? Generally the benefits are to Sony's pockets, and not the consumers, the same as other consoles getting better process tech. The only time we benefit is quieter machines and cheaper machines.

:LOL:

I see. So perhaps we will have to wait for either price drop, perhaps even quieter PS3s, or a system redesign as Nite_Hawk suggested to see any improvement on our end.
 
Less power consumption all by itself is a worthy enough bonus for me. Electricity isn't free after all (money, pollution, etc.) And the less hot the thing gets the better. Though it helps you can put this thing in a different room if needs be and at least still use your remote ... :D (yay for BluTooth)
 
Exactly, Im using my PS2 for watching DVDs, but at the current state I wouldnt do it with a PS3 - it draws 180W, even when idle!
65nm is a first step, but I hope they`ll enable some powersaving features in Cell & RSX. Cell was particulary advertised of having quite extense powersaving functions - apparently they are either broken or not automatic.
 
does anyone know any advantage of 90nm over 65nm???
Smaller, cheaper, cooler, less power-hungry, and can potentially be clocked faster. If you mean advantages for consumers, nothing above what's been mentioned.

Remember that not everything posted on B3D has to have a benefit to the consumers to get us excited!
 
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