SlashGear Japan
By now you’ve no doubt heard the rumors about a new slim PS3 (PSThree if you will). Well if you’re not entirely convinced that Sony might be considering such a move, perhaps the recent news about the new 45nm Cell Processor might help convince you.
IBM and Sony recently announced that they were working on the new 45nm chip which is 34% smaller and consumes 40% less power. What’s even better, it’s even cheaper to produce than the current 65nm Cell Processor.
Does this confirm that Sony is going to make a slimmer PS3? Not at all, however, it would be the perfect time to launch such a console, as both your space and power requirements are significantly lessened. Either way, with the reduced production costs, we would hope that Sony will pass some of that savings onto the consumer.
[via UberGizmo]
2 Responses to “45nm Cell Processor lends credibility to slim PS3 (PSThree) rumors”
Bruceongames February 15, 2008
Manufacturing cost reduction is a core competence at Sony. They also have a new BluRay laser diode in the PS3 and have stripped out backwards compatibility and a load of other features.
NeutralThey are gearing up for a price war with Microsoft.
PaulM February 18, 2008
I attended a public talk by a PS3 developer in which he told the audience that the key to successful PS3 game development was to use as many of the Cell Processor’s Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) as possible. He said that that would be particularily important in the future when IBM Cell processors would include humdreds of SPEs.
It is reasonable to conclude that IBM will use the 45nm process to create a new cell processor for SONY for use in the PS4 that will feature hundreds of SPEs.
It is an interesting observation that if this new Cell processor runs at just 3.2 GHZ then it still be able to run existing PS3 games. Of course the existing games would only use a maximum of 8 SPEs and so would not be using the full power of the new chip.
Neutral