Sony and partners IBM and Toshiba said in a joint statement that IBM is ready to begin pilot production next year on the "Cell" processor jointly developed by the companies.
The first product to use the Cell will be a workstation PC jointly developed by Sony and IBM and set to go on sale in 2005. That's machine is intended mainly for creating computer animation and enabling other demanding graphics tasks. Both Sony and Toshiba expect to begin selling high-definition TV sets powered by the Cell in 2006.
Sony has also confirmed the Cell will power the next version of its market-leading PlayStation game console. Sony executives have said they will show a prototype of the next PlayStation at the E3 trade show next May, but no on-sale date has been confirmed.
In addition to confirming product plans, Monday's statement from the companies included new technical details on the Cell, the subject of considerable speculation and obsessive secrecy since the companies announced development plans three years ago.
Cell will have multiple "cores", or processing units, based on IBM's Power architecture and optimised for multimedia applications, according to the statement. Processor cores will divide computing tasks and share information using adaptations of parallel and distributed computing methods that allow multiple computers to work on a single task, according to the statement.
"The progressive breakdown of barriers between personal computers and digital consumer electronics requires dramatic enhancements in the capabilities and performance of consumer electronics," Masashi Muromachi, president and CEO of Toshiba's semiconductor division, said in the statement. "The Cell processor meets these requirements with a multi-processor architecture and a structure able to support high-level media processing. Development of this unsurpassed, high-performance processor is well underway, carried forward by dedicated teamwork and state-of-the-art expertise from Toshiba, Sony Group and IBM."
Cell will also incorporate new power-saving techniques and allow for on-chip systems to protect copyright works, according to the statement. The chip will be built using equipment capable of creating circuits as small as 90nm, the companies said, reversing an earlier commitment to build the chip using advanced 65nm processes still under development.
The companies said they would offer further technical details on Cell in papers to be presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference scheduled for 6 February to 10 February, 2005, in San Francisco.
HEy i'm a gamer fan of the playstaion. I bought the ps2 when it first came out and it cost me $700, as for the upcoming Ps3 in 2006 i believe it will not cost too much. I'm hoping the PS3 will be stylish and small with all the latest technology, and it must be better then the Xbox2. WIth the hard drive on the ps3 , make it plugable to the computer and you can store anything on it and hopefully the ps3 can play movies, and other applications from the harddrive it self. That would be a good thing because i can bring my ps3 to school partys and can also watch my movies that i saved in the harddrive. Also the ps3 should have a seperate screen that you can just plug straight to the ps3 instead of the Tv, for ocasion like on the bus to excursions, also the ps3 should have build in charger, so i can play it with out using powerplug.
I'm a big fan or playstaion so i hope all my opinions can help and hopefully this letter can would post to the head quatter of the Sonny Computer Entertainment.
Ben Nguyen
5 CHATHAM PL
ST ALBANS
VIC 3021