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CELL Prototype Finished News
Jon Wilcox
29/11/2004
Sony, Toshiba and IBM reveal the new processor set to power the Playstation3…
In two joint press releases, Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Toshiba, and IBM, have today announced the creation of the prototype âCELLâ processor, which is currently being developed in Austin Texas.
The CELL is set to power SCEIâs next-generation games system, as well as Sony and Toshiba High-Definition TVs, and the technical details of the processor are set to be revealed next February at the International Solid States Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
The releases do offer a sneak peek at some of the details, which include:
- Multi-core chip comprising a 64-bit Power processor core and multiple synergistic processor cores capable of massive floating point processing
- Optimized for compute-intensive workloads and broadband rich media
applications - Multi-thread, multicore architecture.
- Supports multiple operating systems at the same time.
- Substantial bus bandwidth to/from main memory, as well as companion chips.
- Flexible on-chip I/O (input/output) interface.
- Real-time resource management system for real-time applications.
- On-chip hardware in support of security system for intellectual property protection.
- Implemented in 90 nanometer (nm) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.
- Uses custom circuit design to increase overall performance, while supporting precise processor clock control to enable power savings.
In a series of comments, the companies expressed their sheer excitement of the CELLâs future.
Dr. John E. Kelly III, Senior Vice President, IBM announced that, âLess than four years ago, we embarked on an ambitious collaborative effort with Sony Group and Toshiba to create a highly-integrated microprocessor designed to overcome imminent transistor scaling, power and performance limitations in conventional technologiesâ¦Today, we're revealing just a sampling of what we believe makes the innovative CELL processor a premiere open platform for next-generation computing and entertainment products.â
âMassive and rich content, like multi-channel HD broadcasting programs as well as mega-pixel digital still/movie images captured by high-resolution CCD/CMOS imagers, require huge amount of media processing in real-time. In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network, and will start to explode,â said Ken Kutaragi, Executive Deputy President and COO, Sony Corporation, and President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. âTo access and/or browse sea of content freely in real-time,
sophisticated GUI within the 3D world will become the âkeyâ in the future. Current PC architecture is nearing its limits, in both processing power and bus bandwidth, for handling such rich applications.â
âThe progressive breakdown of barriers between personal computers and digital consumer electronics requires dramatic enhancements in the capabilities and performance of consumer electronics. The CELL processor meets these requirements with a multi-processor architecture/design and a structure able to support high-level media processing. Development of this unsurpassed, high-performance processor is well under way, carried forward by dedicated teamwork and state-of-the-art expertise from Toshiba, Sony Group and IBM,â said Mr. Masashi Muromachi, Corporate Vice President of Toshiba Corporation and President & CEO of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company. âTodayâs announcement shows the substantial progress that has been made in this joint
program. CELL will substantially enhance the performance of broadband-empowered consumer applications, raise the user-friendliness of services realized through these applications, and facilitate the use of information-rich media and communications.â
The future convergence of multi-media is well known to be the Holy Grail for Sony; something that is already evident with their PSX hybrid and the multi-app PSP system. The fact that Sony continues to press ahead with the CELL processor, which will be able to handle a range of high-end applications, especially the ability to handle broadband rich media applications, demonstrates their intent to continue along those lines; although concerns have already arisen within the industry regarding Sonyâs move away from games in their almost obsessive quest for the ultimate home-entertainment system. Certainly many companies have tried in the past, where it used to be labeled as âmulti-mediaâ; whether or not Sony can succeed where so many have failed will prove to be interesting times.
In one of the press releases, Masayuki Chatani, Corporate Executive and CTO, Sony Computer Entertainment, goes as far saying that âCELL processor-based workstation will totally change the digital content creation environmentâ¦Its overwhelming power will be demonstrated at every aspect in the development of all kinds of digital entertainment content, from movies, broadcast programs to next generation PlayStation games.â
As widely believed the CELL processor is heavily reliant on parallel processing. The Press Release confirms that a one-rack CELL processor based workstation is capable of 16 teraflops, and whilst an individual CELL processor is capable of parallel processing, a cluster of CELL processors across a network can act as a huge parallel processing unit that can handle a wide range of applications, from handling massive data required for complex physics simulations to playing Playstation3 titles.
The release also confirms that the CELL will utilize Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology, something that TVG reported on way back in June. Increasing performance yet keeping power consumption low is a crucial task in the development and manufacturing of next-gen components, SOI technology goes someway to solving the heavy demands placed on the CELL processor.
The press release substantiates what was reported last week, confirming that the first CELL-based Workstations have been manufactured and brought online. The press releases also state that both Sony and Toshiba are planning to launch CELL powered HDTVs in 2006, and whilst they do mention the next-generation games machine, a date for the PS3âs release is not even suggested.
The unbelievably ambitious nature of the CELL processor is almost impossible to comprehend; Sony, Toshiba and IBM are touting this as a revolution within the computing industry and hope that it will go on to power far more then the Playstation3 and a few HDTV sets. Sony are keen to push this as the Holy Grail when it comes to Home Entertainment, with consumers able to watch Movies-on-Demand and a wide variety of other entertainment activities from their Playstation3, whilst itâs sheer brutish power when clustered together should provide the scope for some radical changes in industries that rely heavily upon computational power. Whether or not the general population is ready for such a technological advancement remains in question; however there can be no doubt that Sony aims to make sweeping changes to entertainment as we know it. Sony have well and truly laid their cards on the table; with Microsoft and Nintendo still focusing entirely on videogames, the next-generation war should prove to be the most exciting yet.
Weâll have more information on CELL and PS3 shortlyâ¦
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