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From Feb announcement:

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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/08/cell_specifications/

Multi-OS Cell CPU tops 4GHz

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski at theregister.co.uk)

Published Tuesday 8th February 2005 03:07 GMT

Technical details of the Cell processor, a joint venture between Sony, IBM and Toshiba, were disclosed in San Francisco today.

But the example chip shown to journalists today is likely to be superseded by faster versions when it appears on the market later this year. The Cell has 234m transistors, measures 221mm² and, as detailed in the patent, has eight execution units, here dubbed "synergistic processors". Cell refers to a piece of software that roams the local machine, a LAN or a WAN looking for execution resources.

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When the unit appears - in enterprise kit from IBM, and in Sony's PlayStation 3 console - it's likely to clock 4.6GHz and be built on a 65nm process. Today's samples used a 90nm process. Cells will be manufactured at IBM's 300mm fab in East Fishkill, New Yorj and Sony's Nagasaki plant.

IBM said the processor is "OS neutral", but it will able to run multiple operating systems concurrently.

Sony and IBM dispelled any doubt that in addition to being suitable for technical and commercial IT, the processor is aimed at the heart of the home: with digital TVs and home servers cited as likely vehicles for the processor.

Many of your comments on the long-term economic and social impact (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/cell_analysis_part_two/) of the processor focus on technical obstacles to its success. We'll round up the best later today. ®

Big money going into this:

Sony to ramp chip spend to $9 billion over three years

The Register » Channel »

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/05/29/sony_to_ramp_chip_spend/

Sony to ramp chip spend to $9 billion over three years

By Tony Smith (tony.smith at theregister.co.uk)

Published Thursday 29th May 2003 09:24 GMT

Sony plans to spent ¥500 billion ($4.3 billion) over the next three years on chip fabrication facilities and the same figure on chip R&D, the chip giant said yesterday.

This year alone it will spend ¥175 billion ($1.5 billion) on capex and a little less than that on R&D.

Sony has already said it intends to invest ¥200 billion ($1.7 billion) developing a 65nm fab process and building a 300mm wafer plant.

The announcement follows Sony's decision, revealed earlier this month, to combine its various chip development and production operations into a single unit. The new operation is already working on Cell, the next-generation massively parallel processor being co-designed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba. It is also preparing a 90nm version of the PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine CPU which integrates the console's graphics chip on the die.

That part, dubbed the EE+GS@90nm, is the foundation of PSX, the PlayStation 2-based home server Sony announced separately yesterday. The cubic white unit integrates a DVD+/-RW drive, 120GB hard drive, TV tuner and game console. PSX will ship in Japan by the end of the year - giving Sony time to ramp up its 90nm process - and later in 2004 for the US and Europe.

The PSX will ship with an analog TV tuner, though this will ultimately be upgraded to a digital version, Sony said. The product comes from Sony's Broadband Networks Company, and marks the first real convergence product tying in TV, broadband Internet and computing. Microsoft is believed to be working on a similar system as a the next version of its Xbox console. ®

Sony to combine PlayStation and group chip operations (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/30583.html)

Multi-OS Cell CPU tops 4GHz

Sony to ramp chip spend to $9 billion over three years

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