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Sony drops Cell project, to focus on 32nm microchip technology

Posted Nov 6, 2007 at 10:09PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3 Tags: gaming accessories, IBM, Peter Hofstee, Sony, Toshiba

The power of Sony's PlayStation 3 can be attributed to the Cell Broadband Engine. While its chief architect is Peter Hofstee, this particular microprocessor is the result of the joint venture among Sony, IBM, and Toshiba Corporation. The partnership began in 2001 and is expected to end by 2010.

In an interesting turn of events, Sony has announced today that it is withdrawing from the project to focus on developing the technology for producing microchips with 32nm circuitry or less. As a result of this move, Sony also said that it will be selling its Cell production facilities to Toshiba.

When Sony first announced that the PlayStation 3 will be using the Cell technology, most speculated that it costs too expensive and both Sony and its user base will suffer. Throughout the recent months, however, Sony has been able to come up with different models of the console and implement price cuts.

Such things imply that a company has already perfected the technology and that production cost is starting to lower. We will keep a close eye on this development because we are eager to know how Sony plans on using the planned 32nm chip.

Via Nikkei Interactive

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They neglected to mention that Cell production will not cease.. and subsequently will have no effect on PS3 production or its lifespan..

This was a move by Sony in terms of Research and Development.. that is all.

They cannot improve it further, so they're pulling the funding from the project to start fresh on the NEXT generation of microprocessors ...

Cell production will not end until the 2010 contract date is reached and the deal is over.

In the meantime.. all you Xbox people have fun rolling in dirt that doesnt exist.

# keith k — LiK SHoT 2007-11-07 02:14

your r such a fanboy.... get off the 360's d1(k 4real... every developer says that the consoles are basically equal, and they are just built different... dont 4get the 360 uses a triple core processor, that's insane, plus it uses more ram.... and the ram is unified, not split like the ps3 so it is more versatile... processing power is not everything - ram is just as important. the consoles are pretty much equal and great games will come out for both...

sony is NOT PAYING YOU, so stop being such a d1(k r1d3r.

fu(k1n6 fanboys make me sick on both sides!! if the only way u can justify your purchase is to bash the competition, then you need to throw yourself out of a window b/c you sound like a rabid idiot... yeah that goes for ps3 and 360 fanboys alike

# Amen — bloodangel86 2007-11-07 02:38

Amen

# Fanboy — Mleep 2007-11-07 02:51

Well if you want people to stop being fanboys, then you could try stop saying that the consoles are pretty muchequal, because "on paper" PS3 is more powerful than X360. The problem is that it takes much longer to tap into PS3's power because of it's architecture, so for the forseeable future there won't be any major noticable difference in the games, and in that sense they're pretty much equal, now. But on paper PS3 is a more powerful console, and experts all say, even Xbox fans, that eventually PS3 will do things that X360 wont be able to do.

Anyway about the Cell chip, I think it's good that they move on to other things and develop new technology for us rather than staying with the same for years.

# ... — Koolaidsred1 2007-11-07 03:19

well i support both but you claim a 3 core spu is insane well how about a 7? :)

# ... — DVSDevise 2007-11-07 05:11

This proves that Cell isn't the be all to end all in the processor market. Else Sony wouldn't be selling it off to one of their competitors to make a quick buck. If Sony didn't put Cell in the PS3 they would of lost big time in R&D, because no one else wants to use it.

They are selling the technology to Toshiba but will be the only customer buying the Cell chips back off them. But Toshiba only needs to sell 16 million chips with a $50 margin to get their money back. Seems like a desperate move by Sony to get some short term cash. They'll end up paying more money then they receive from selling it off. I guess they are more interested getting out of the technology and developing a new chip that other companies might actually want to use in their products.

# Unified Memory — Zan Long 2007-11-07 05:56

keith k I agree that the PS3 and 360 are pretty much equal. I also should say that I have a 360. I know someone who has a PS3. With that said.

I do not agree with you is on Unified memory.

With unified memory you are having the main RAM share memory between CPU and and other components.

The 360 has 512 MB GDDR3 RAM. Lets say a game needs 64 MB for graphics. That leaves 448 MB RAM for everything else. That is 64 MB that can not be used for anything else. Only for graphics.

System RAM usually runs slower than dedicated graphics RAM,and more contention as the memory bus has to be shared with the rest of the system.

PS3 has 256 MB of DRAM. That is the main RAM. It also has 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM.

Yes the PS3 has less main RAM then the 360, but the PS3 does not have to share RAM with the GPU, becuse the GPU has it own RAM. That means better looking games on the PS3.

Do not get me wrong. 360 has great looking games, but there are times where there are framerate problem with some games Gears of War comes to mind.

# ... — DVSDevise 2007-11-07 06:51

Sorry but your facts are wrong. The 360 can split up the memory anyway it wants, were as you on the PS3 you can't have more than 256MB of system memory or 256MB of video memory. Plus the 360 OS only uses 32MB of memory where as the PS3 uses 82MB of memory. On top of that if developers want to include features like friends list, voice/text chat on their PS3 game they need to allocate more memory to that. Where as all those features and more are packed into the 32MB of OS memory on the 360 version. Cell has to utilized to accommodate for this lack of memory and also for the fact that RSX is a much weaker GPU than the 360's Xenos GPU. Overall things come out about even.

# yup — killalot100 2007-11-07 07:39

i think the only difference is blu ray. not in graphics but in sound and it can have high def cg scenes

# So does that mean... — RexNox 2007-11-07 10:08

we get our Terminators or not?

# Well...one would think... — Shatterdome 2007-11-07 13:24

If the Cell is so awesome, and makes an awesome gaming CPU that Sony would be trying to put R+D into the next generation of Cell to power their next gaming system.....it's interesting how they are just abandoning it and starting on something else....

Also, with all their losses, I guess they need as much cash as possible, and selling billion dollar microprocessors facilities will cut their losses abit....

# Idiot — Mr Toasty 2007-11-07 13:31

Toshiba helped develop the Cell chip and is therefore not a competior. Also, the Cell is an excellent media streaming device, and will have a life through implementation in TVs and Media players. Not to mention it's use in supercomputing.

# Unified Memory — Zan Long 2007-11-07 17:35

Anyway you cut it, you are still useing Unified Memory. That means that you can only use one pool of RAM for every thing.

With the way the PS3 and 99.9% of PC work, you have one pool for the CPU and and other components and you have one just for graphics. With two pools you get better performance becuse the work load is not bottleneck. Which is what happnes with one pool. Note I never said that you could not split up the memory anyway you wanted. In fact you need to do that with unified memory, but thats more work for the computer. With two pool you cut the workload in half and get better performance.

# SPU — nall256 2007-11-07 17:58

Remember the 7 SPU's aren't equivalent to CPU cores. For instance SPU's cannot directly access system memory, The PS3's CPU is more sophisticated and probably faster for gaming, but its not a 2.5 X boost in performance...

Does anybody know whether or not these crazy CPU speeds even matter for gaming? I am using an 8600 and when I upgraded from a 2.6 ghz P4 to a 2.6 ghz C2D I didnt get more than 10 frames per second boost on BioShock.

# alright — mreverdred01 2007-11-07 18:12

Sony started investing in the Cell Processor back in 2001. It's going to be a 9 year investment. The PS2 was just starting to dominate around the time they started. The fact that they're starting work on a new chip doesn't mean they've given up on the PS3, it just means Sony's smart and realizes that they have to start now if they want the technology to be out there in time for the Playstation 4 and other future technology they could use the chip in. They're one of the biggest technological researching companies out there. I'm sure they know what they're doing.

# -_- — Mr Toasty 2007-11-07 18:30

Shared and Dedicated memory have advantages and disadvatages. The dedicated memory of the RSX is much faster than what the Shared memory of the Xenos is, however the developer can designate memory as he or she sees fit.

And that comment about needing more memory for voice and text in the background is ridiculous. I have a feeling that the XMB uses so much memory because it has no "background mode." This means some of it's features (voice, text, music) are usable without any hindrance to the game's performance.

Where is your proof that the RSX is inferior to the Xenos?

# ??? — JackBeNimble 2007-11-07 19:29

i thought the PS3 was considered to have one of the best ram cards out there. doesnt it matter what type and not just the number (512mb). there has to be a difference

# . — KirbySS 2007-11-07 20:42

No-one wants to use it? Toshiba are considering it for HDTVs, IBM are using it in their newest line of BladeCenters, not to mention uses by the US Military and of course, using PS3's in Linux clusters.

Really, "no-one" is completely false.

# No Zan — Unregistered Gamer 2007-11-08 01:55

You're making assumptions which are not correct. It's the age old arguement that 'unified memory means less performance' claim which has been around since the N64 (which also had unified memory btw).

The XBox didn't suffer because of it's unified memory, and it is clear from what we're seeing in 360 games today and from developer comments, that NO-ONE is having problems because of unified memory on the 360 today, quite the contrary in fact. If anything, it is the PS3 which is giving developers problems with memory with it's two pools of memory and having less available due to the OS. :|

Unified memory is NOT 'more work for the computer', neither is it more of a bottleneck or a performance inhibitor. Yes it has the 'potential' to have these problems if the design is not good enough, but this is not the case in the 360.

So given that this 'problem' has never arisen in articles about the console, in developer interviews or in the games themselves, then it's clear that unified memory is not a problem in the 360. :|

# ... — kingtoid 2007-11-08 03:38

Nall256, you answered your own question. You said you got 10 more FPS so yes it does help for gaming but in a lot of games the video card can seriously hurt your FPS. For example, if upgraded to a Core 2 QX6850 you still might not get THAT much more FPS but if you got an 8800GT you would see an Uber improvement.

You can't generalize the word performance. We have to know whether it is cpu, graphics, RAM, HD, etc. that is performing well (or maybe not so well)

JackBeNimble, What are you talking about a "RAM card" for. There is no such thing except maybe intels new turbo memory.

Yes the PS3 has a very nice RAM system. It uses 256MB(not 512) of XDR main memory and it also has 256MB of video RAM.

Yes there is a difference between type and amount.

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