QUOTE]
themuffinking writes "IBM (the manufacturers of some of the parts for the PS3 and Xbox 2) told Alex Albrecht that the processors they are putting in the new PS3 and Xbox2 are going to be the same processor, with the parts around it arranged slightly differently. Alex pried this information out of an IBM employee, likely while interviewing him for the show on which Alex is a cohost, The Screen Savers. Alex equivocates by saying "Now again, this is a rumor... so no Slashdotting". Too late for that, but keep in mind this is just hearsay at this point.
[/QUOTE]
While both CPUs are developed by or in co-operation with IBM, note that officially the PS3 should be a CELL-based CPU(more info) and the Xbox2 a G5/PowerPC-based(more info) CPU.
Unless Sony gave up CELL there should cerainly be atleast some difference between the 2 CPUs ... IBM, Sony and Toshiba didn't invest so much money in CELL for nothing I'd guess. It's of course possible that a lot has been taken from Power(PC) to develop CELL and differences are not as big as some want us to believe.
*UPDATE* from replies on slashdot.org: "It seem the PS3 CELL processor will be using the PPC architecture as the 'Processor Unit' of the 'Processor Element'. On PS2 each CELL would be 1 'system' cpu and muliple PS2-style vector units. The vector units would be running the user-level code (all game code, tv decoder / tivo code, etc) and the system cpu would be in charge of divvying out some of the onboard resources to each of the VUs, ensuring security permissions, and stuff like that. Oh, and the system CPU was, IIRC, a PPC core. While the Xbox 2 will probably use the G5 (PPC arch) the same way it is used in a PowerMac"
themuffinking writes "IBM (the manufacturers of some of the parts for the PS3 and Xbox 2) told Alex Albrecht that the processors they are putting in the new PS3 and Xbox2 are going to be the same processor, with the parts around it arranged slightly differently. Alex pried this information out of an IBM employee, likely while interviewing him for the show on which Alex is a cohost, The Screen Savers. Alex equivocates by saying "Now again, this is a rumor... so no Slashdotting". Too late for that, but keep in mind this is just hearsay at this point.
[/QUOTE]
While both CPUs are developed by or in co-operation with IBM, note that officially the PS3 should be a CELL-based CPU(more info) and the Xbox2 a G5/PowerPC-based(more info) CPU.
Unless Sony gave up CELL there should cerainly be atleast some difference between the 2 CPUs ... IBM, Sony and Toshiba didn't invest so much money in CELL for nothing I'd guess. It's of course possible that a lot has been taken from Power(PC) to develop CELL and differences are not as big as some want us to believe.
*UPDATE* from replies on slashdot.org: "It seem the PS3 CELL processor will be using the PPC architecture as the 'Processor Unit' of the 'Processor Element'. On PS2 each CELL would be 1 'system' cpu and muliple PS2-style vector units. The vector units would be running the user-level code (all game code, tv decoder / tivo code, etc) and the system cpu would be in charge of divvying out some of the onboard resources to each of the VUs, ensuring security permissions, and stuff like that. Oh, and the system CPU was, IIRC, a PPC core. While the Xbox 2 will probably use the G5 (PPC arch) the same way it is used in a PowerMac"
