When are the 65nm PS3's and XB360's shipping?

[bomlat]

And where's the 65nm Etch-A-Sketch?

yes,you are right.
Where is the 65nm ps2?

 

[archangelmorph]

yes,you are right.
Where is the 65nm ps2?

And the 65nm Casio X500?

 

[pascal]

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6573&Itemid=2

Thanks. Then maybe this year

 

[zealotonous]

biweekly update request. Any news?

 

[Carl B]

It'll be a couple of months - that's the latest.

 

[Rangers]

Very interesting read indeed.

One very obvious and simple way to upgrade the PS3 would be to use a Cell with all 8 SPEs working. Then what could an extra SPE be useful for? I think there are quite a few useful things the OS could harbour. For example the extra SPE could provide the power to decode/encode some video chat streams in a few small windows while you are playing some other games. If they make the extra SPE available to games, some games may use it to boost some particle simulation or some other nice fx.

If Sony brings back the extra HDMI port they could have those video streams on a separate screen. I don´t think an extra HDMI port would add much extra cost.
If they have two TMDS transmitters integrated in the RSX when shrinked to 65 nm, they would actually add some redundancy which could help the yield.
According to this the G71 had 2x dual-link DVI TMDS transmitters. One can speculate the reason why they were not integrated in the 90 nm RSX, could be due to the unfinished HDMI standard or just a matter of die size.

The rumoured "reserved" 32 MB of GDDR3 RAM could be useful for an extra frame buffer if an extra HDMI port is added.

If they add memory I think the XDR RAM is the RAM that will get boosted first, because it will provide most flexibility. Like it would allow you to have a web browser running in parallel with your game in a separate window and such and it would really make the PS3 a more versatile and powerful Linux workstation at the same time.

Of course if they doubled the size of both the main and the video memory that would be awesome. Somehow I doubt they will change the video memory without changing the spec of the RSX, and I personally don´t think that is very likely as it would put even more burden on the developers. I don´t even think the RSX has been completely introduced yet, the discrepancy in the die size between the G71 and RSX leaves plenty of open questions. But hey, if they can do it without adding much extra work for the developers, why not? The more the merrier.

So people with old PS3's wont be able to play new games?

Not happening.

 

[Rockster]

Chartered is apparently already working on shrinking the XCPU to 45nm and has been shipping 65nm chips for 2 quarters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070801/tc_pcworld/135324

 

[quest55720]

Chartered is apparently already working on shrinking the XCPU to 45nm and has been shipping 65nm chips for 2 quarters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070801/tc_pcworld/135324

Thanks for the link good news for MS and those waiting for a falcon. I wonder how the xenos 65nm is going.

 

[TheChefO]

Chartered is apparently already working on shrinking the XCPU to 45nm and has been shipping 65nm chips for 2 quarters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070801/tc_pcworld/135324

If that source is true (MS has 65nm now), and they don't drop at least $100 across the board this year, they're idiots that deserve to lose.

 

[Todd33]

Chartered is apparently already working on shrinking the XCPU to 45nm and has been shipping 65nm chips for 2 quarters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070801/tc_pcworld/135324

I think there is a lot of wishful thinking going on here.

Chia didn't name the CPU customer but was likely referring to Microsoft, which uses Chartered to manufacture its Xbox 360 processor.

Chia said the design of the 45nm video-game processor is not yet complete, and hinted that production of the CPU-- as well as other products designed for the 45nm process--- is not likely to begin until late 2008 or early 2009.

 

[dobwal]

If that source is true (MS has 65nm now), and they don't drop at least $100 across the board this year, they're idiots that deserve to lose.

Just because MS is receiving shipment of 65 nm chips doesn't mean that 360 is ready to include those chips in its manufacturing.

 

[Crossbar]

So people with old PS3's wont be able to play new games?

Not happening.

I guess you never played a PC game. There are usually quite a few switches you can turn on and off to match your computers capability.

I am not saying this will happen, but if Sony made a new version of a PS3 with an extra working SPU and/or whatever extra capability and exposed those features in the API. It would probably be up to the developers to decide if they are willing to spend some extra efforts on the software to let it sense what hardware version the game is running on and add some extra functions that make use of those capabilities, such as some extra particle effects or whatever.

Adding some video streams handled by the OS may not effect the games at all.

Anyways this is just pure speculation.

 

[TheChefO]

Just because MS is receiving shipment of 65 nm chips doesn't mean that 360 is ready to include those chips in its manufacturing.

Indeed.

But if they are receiving them it's because they ordered them. Thus, they knew they were coming. Thus, they should have designed and manufactured other components by now which would allow using these new chips in shipping xb360's for this fall and significant BOM savings which would allow a $100 price drop.

Again, they deserve to lose if they aren't on the ball with this.

 

[Todd33]

Don't they have to sell through their existing stock before they ship new units? I assume it's like the 60GB PS3s, they have several million to sell before they change the SKU. Surely MS has the same problem and has to use the holidays to flush the system.

 

[Dave Baumann]

You don't need to change SKU's to sell units with the newer chips in them.

 

[TheChefO]

Don't they have to sell through their existing stock before they ship new units?

Of course.

But I doubt MS will want to tip their hand either way in this regard and to the general consumer, these machines will likely seem identical. (Yes, this will mean MS will have to take a "hit" financially on these "older" consoles)

The other side of this argument though is the fact that MS doesn't have millions of units sitting in warehouses. MS have leaned out the market since December and their "shipped to retail" numbers prove this fact.

Either way you look at it, if they have the ability to ship 65nm this fall and they don't drop the price to match, they deserve whatever they get for missing such an opportunity.

 

[bomlat]

Don't they have to sell through their existing stock before they ship new units? I assume it's like the 60GB PS3s, they have several million to sell before they change the SKU. Surely MS has the same problem and has to use the holidays to flush the system.

Not only the extra stock,but all of the remained console parts,and they can be many million part for the current modell.
Not only the cpu/gpu,but the mainboard,heatskins and all other small part.

And the other they have to re-rool all of the supply chainexample,the tool set for the injection molding cost many million $(at least 10) any many month.

 

[Todd33]

You don't need to change SKU's to sell units with the newer chips in them.

I was talking about Sony. But surely MS can't push new units to the shelf when they already have three SKUs out there with the old parts. The retailers only have so much room. So how many units does MS have in the retail channels? I think people are oversimplifying the process and think MS can just make new 360 and throw them on the shelf by fall - where did all the old ones go?

 

[Dave Baumann]

Again, why do you need new SKU's?

The SKU's, as far as the retailers are concerned are the Core, Pro/Premium, Elite - what is actually inside the cases of the consoles that are housed in those SKU boxes are immaterial, they all perform the same function irrespective of whether they are using 90nm or 65nm chips.

As I've said before, it is entirely likely that they will have a transition period where the current SKU's will remain the same, otwardly, but some may have 90nm chips, some may have 65nm chips, and some may even have a mixture. Only when the transition has fully happen and you have fully stopped wafer production of 90nm and depleted the supply do you think about changing the SKU's.

 

[dobwal]

Again, why do you need new SKU's?

The SKU's, as far as the retailers are concerned are the Core, Pro/Premium, Elite - what is actually inside the cases of the consoles that are housed in those SKU boxes are immaterial, they all perform the same function irrespective of whether they are using 90nm or 65nm chips.

As I've said before, it is entirely likely that they will have a transition period where the current SKU's will remain the same, otwardly, but some may have 90nm chips, some may have 65nm chips, and some may even have a mixture. Only when the transition has fully happen and you have fully stopped wafer production of 90nm and depleted the supply do you think about changing the SKU's.

Do you think that having razor thin to negative margins on the hardware, that MS would adopt of strategy of only releasing 65 nm once production lines have been fully transitioned especially when a price drop is so closely tied to cost?