Interview with IBM / Cell Chip in PS3

[Iced_Eagle]

http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA6350202.html?industryid=21365

That is an interview with a guy at IBM, they are making the Cell processor for the PS3. The playstation parts are at the end.

First the good news, Sony is really dedicated to getting backwards compatibility right out of the box and not using updates like Microsoft (they are taking a hardware-approach to it). If 40 PS1 games don't work, then Sony says that it doesn't meet the standards of quality which is really f*cking awesome... Out of the hundreds of titles for both PS1 and PS2 there will be less than 40 that have a chance of not working? Sweet

Now the bad news... I'll basically cliff-notes it... Manufacturing the Cell chips is really freakin' hard and extremely unreliable (which by the way I can guarantee you that probably due to this, the PS3 will be extremely hard to find, possibly more so than the Xbox360 because it's harder to manufacture). Sometimes you end up with all 8 SPE's on the Cell working, other times you only get like 5 or 6... Obviously ones that don't meet the minimum of 7 (which is the minimum the PS3 needs to run) won't get used...

Electronic News: What happens if one of the cores blows on the Sony Playstation 3 if there are only seven to start with?
Reeves: It’s just like a reliability failure on your TV or DVD recorder. If it’s within warranty, you send it back. If it’s not, your game doesn’t work anymore. You’ll always have choices about how reliable you want to make a chip with burn-in. Most chips that go into the consumer marketplace on things such as camcorders or DVD players aren’t burned in. But you can add burn-in and improve reliability 5x to 10x. It’s extra cost. Certainly, a company like Sony adds that in.

So it seems that part of the $600 bucks is making sure the Cell cores don't break down on us, which is definetely nice, but it sort of sucks knowing that you could damage just one of them and then your PS3 is in the dumps. I'm sure you can do it with overheating, so let's hope there aren't any over-heating issues with PS3.

 

[Gray Fox]

Why not sell a cheaper ps3 that doesn't have backwards compataiblity, that would slash the price by 60,-. I mean they said it themselves that later the ps3 will emulate the ps2, right now it is done by actual ps2 harware in the ps3.

So people who do not need the emulation right now can buy it cheaply.

PS. will this mean that the people who bought ps3 with 8 working chips will have a performance boost or not?

 

[Majestic XII]

Why not sell a cheaper ps3 that doesn't have backwards compataiblity, that would slash the price by 60,-. I mean they said it themselves that later the ps3 will emulate the ps2, right now it is done by actual ps2 harware in the ps3.

So people who do not need the emulation right now can buy it cheaply.

PS. will this mean that the people who bought ps3 with 8 working chips will have a performance boost or not?

In order to do that, they have to set up a new assembly line in the factory, redesign the hardware, repack etc. It would cost too much.

 

[satch919]

I can't help but think that the Cell chip is overhyped. Sony made tons of promises with the PS2's "Emotion Engine" and look how that turned out. All of Sony's "supercomputer" talk has made be a skeptic.

 

[smwScott]

Why not sell a cheaper ps3 that doesn't have backwards compataiblity, that would slash the price by 60,-. I mean they said it themselves that later the ps3 will emulate the ps2, right now it is done by actual ps2 harware in the ps3.

So people who do not need the emulation right now can buy it cheaply.

PS. will this mean that the people who bought ps3 with 8 working chips will have a performance boost or not?

There's already two functionally different PS3 models heading to retail, which is one too many in my opinion. The more variations they add the more manufacturing costs they endure, the more market confusion they cause, and it loses it's uniformity.

And as far as the cell chip being overhyped ... did you really believe that that you were buying a $500 supercomputer? Come on. It's just a very fast chip with a new kind of architecture, which is all it was ever supposed to be. Don't listen to the marketing BS.

 

[Asuka]

Very interesting interview.

 

[Anthraxxx]

There's already two functionally different PS3 models heading to retail, which is one too many in my opinion. The more variations they add the more manufacturing costs they endure, the more market confusion they cause, and it loses it's uniformity.

And as far as the cell chip being overhyped ... did you really believe that that you were buying a $500 supercomputer? Come on. It's just a very fast chip with a new kind of architecture, which is all it was ever supposed to be. Don't listen to the marketing BS.

Unfortunately, a large majority of people *do* eat up the marketing BS simply because it's Sony.

 

[hungryduck]

meh....I just think that the price of the thing is far too much for what it seems to offer.......
and now a high chance of easily breaking the most expensive and critical part of the whole console?
I'll pass.

 

[Javert]

Sony should realize how much a consumer actually wants and how much it's willing to pay. But I'm glad they put a bunch of (expensive) safeguards and treating backwards compat. so seriously, unlike M$ who are just winging it.

 

[Cole]

Gray Fox a ps3 will only use 7, if it has an 8th it will be unused.

 

[Dalamari]

Still costs $600

 

[Iced_Eagle]

PS. will this mean that the people who bought ps3 with 8 working chips will have a performance boost or not?

No, it just means that you have a spare SPE incase one goes kaput. You will get no difference in speed or performance...

They said that more than likely the Cell Chips that have all 8 working SPE's will be sent to NASA, used in Medical Equipment, etc etc... They will only use the ones with 7 for the PS3.