cell
Mobile Games Market Has ‘Flatlined’ – Experts
9:20AM Stuart Houghton | Now hang on a minute. It doesn’t seem like five minutes since some gaggle of market pundits were proclaiming that the iPhone had turned the mobile games market inside out and pointing at developers rolling around in pits of cash like Scrooge McDuck. More »
Japanese Site: It’s Time To Talk PS4
1:00PM Brian Ashcraft | While Sony’s been touting the PS3’s ten year life-span, Hiroshige Goto from Japanese site PC Watch is already talking PLAYSTATION 4. According to Goto, Sony is apparently moving forward with the PS4 and considering using the Cell Broadband Engine that powers the PS3 as the next console’s architectural base. Sony, Goto points out, has invested heavily in the Cell so that it can be updated with new iterations and used for a long period of time — a point that does give strength to the rumour he floats. What’s more, using an upgraded Cell in the PS4 would obviously lower the cost of production with a smaller chip, too. That right there could be a key factor in why Sony could very well be investigating this possibility. What’s more, it seems more in line with what Nintendo has successfully done with the GameCube and the Wii. Goto goes on to theorize if the next PlayStation will have 32 cores (compared to the current 8), but Goto doesn’t have any concrete information about Sony’s plans. While the original Xbox had trouble trailing the PS2 (and all the PS2 developer kits that were sent out), Sony has been playing catch up against the Xbox 360. So, for example, if Sony wants to get the PS4 out in 2011 before the next Xbox, it will need a shortcut because actual chip development, Goto writes, takes 3 or 4 years. PLAYSTATION 4は拡張版Cell搭載へ向かう [PC Watch] More »
45nm Cell Processor Due Next Year – Cheaper PS3s On The Way?45nm Cell Processors Could Mean Cheaper PS3 On The Way, But Maybe Not
6:20AM Stuart Houghton | In 2009, Sony and Toshiba are to begin mass production of the 45nm version of the Cell processor used in the PlayStation 3, reports Engadget. The smaller processor uses around 40% less power than the current 65nm chip and generates proportionally less heat. It also costs substantially less to manufacture. It would be lovely to think that Sony will pass these savings on to the consumer, but given the less than stellar sales of the PS3 we may just see a smaller, more slimline incarnation of the console at a similar price point. Sony and Toshiba to begin mass producing 45nm cell processor in 2009 [Engadget] More »
U.S. Air Force Wants To Buy 300 PS3s For Cell “Assessment”
12:29PM Michael McWhertor | Ripped from tomorrow’s press releases comes word that the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has submitted a purchase request for a bunch of PlayStation 3s—three hundred of the 40GB model, to be exact. They’re not (officially) intended for playing Grand Theft Auto IV or training pilots under the harsh control conditions of Lair, mind you, but for “conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors”. Uh huh. More »
45nm Cell Means Cheaper PS3
2:00AM Mike Fahey | From 90mm to 65mm to 45mm – IBM has announced details on a smaller, more efficient version of the Cell BE processor, which of course is the brains inside every shiny new PlayStation 3. IBM will soon migrate from the 65nm process currently used to manufacture the chips to their next generation 45nm high-k process, which results in a Cell that requires 40 percent less power, reducing cooling costs while a smaller die means higher yields and a lower overall cost. This gives Sony a choice – reduce the price of the system to increase their install base or just ride the cheaper process for awhile to work up a little profit. Also interesting to note is that once again the shrink comes with no performance tweaks, with IBM citing the need to maintain gaming software operation. In other words, IBM’s Cell division is Sony’s little bitch. IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow [Ars Technica] More »
This Is What The PS3 Can Do To Your Brain
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | IBM and The Mayo Clinic have teamed up to open a research facility, which they hope will bring about advances in the field of medical imaging, and in particular to things like CT scans. At present, it can take a doctor hours to look over a set of scans, which in some cases can endanger a patient’s life. It’s hoped that by using the PS3’s Cell chip they can not only create 3D images of a patient’s brain much faster, they can also then compare those to earlier 3D images in only minutes, a feat which once took hours. Pretty neat, considering the Cell was built to, you know. Play games. The Mayo Clinic’s chairman Bradley Erickson says this is not the first time games tech has been used to aid medical science. In addition to their current research using the Cell chip, Erickson says that “other games technology”, including high-end graphics cards, are often used in medicine, particularly in the field of imaging. IBM, Mayo Clinic team up to improve medical imaging [Computerworld, via io9] More »
Hackers Find The PlayStation 3 To Be Totally Hackarific
12:06PM Michael McWhertor | The PlayStation 2 was at one point demonised as a dangerous supercomputer that could fall into the wrong hands (the Communists!), with the potential to be used as a launch mechanism for nuclear missiles or some such nonsense. The PlayStation 3? It may very well become the tool of choice for another nefarious sect: HACKERS! According to security researcher Nick Breese’s report from the Kiwicon hacker conference in Wellington, New Zealand, the PS3 can brute force crack passwords 100 times faster than comparable Intel hardware. Wait, so we can’t get a solid framerates in Madden but my PDF files are in danger of being exposed to thousands of leet haxorz from the evil menace Anonymous? Priorities are out of whack, people. The PlayStation 3’s relatively low price could mean password cracking and encryption busting could become much more commonplace, warns Breese. He issued a warning to software makers to increase their security efforts based on the findings. Editor’s note: This news was covered by Kotaku AU yesterday. Includes extra bonus information. PlayStation a hacker’s dream [The Age via Game|Life] More »Hackers, Go Buy A PS3
2:00PM Logan Booker | Nick Breese, a Kiwi researcher, believes the PS3 could be the next great (and affordable) hacking tool, according to a story over at The Sydney Morning Herald.
We all know the Synergistic Processing Units, or SPUs, in the Playstation 3’s Cell processor are capable chunks of hardware. Although the Cell chip in the PS3 has only six of its eight SPUs accessible (one is locked to improve yields, and the other handles console security), that’s still a respectable amount of grunt. 14 Tony units, to be exact.
While Nick is confident this power is more than enough to brute-force simple eight-character passwords, he says your bank account’s 128-bit SSL will give it a lot of trouble.
From the article:
The gaming console is perfect for cracking passwords because the chips it uses are optimised to rapidly perform the calculations required to model 3-D environments. The computing techniques used to crack passwords are similar.
More » 
Sony Wants Nothing To Do With Cell
11:00AM Logan Booker | Sony has further progressed in its tactical retreat from the Sony-Toshiba-IBM (STI) alliance originally formed to design and produce the multi-core Cell processor, with news that it will be dumping the research and development side of the equation.
The first step was to sell off its related manufacturing assets. Now STI will officially lose its “S” as Sony pulls out of the project entirely.
According to the GameDaily story, Sony executive deputy president Yutaka Nakagawa had this to say:
“Manufacturing cutting-edge packaged IC chips is not considered as important as it once was. The most important thing is what type of chip a company decides to produce, so we will increase the number of designers depending on the chip’s purpose. The fact that we will stop operating an advanced chip plant does not mean that we are downgrading the importance of the chip business.”
If Sony’s not interested in shrinking Cell down to 32nm from 45nm, then we won’t be seeing any new PlayStation 3 SKUs for some time. Unless Sony wants to cut out more functionality.
I don’t find this move at all surprising, considering Sony is doing its best to not bleed money. Also, when you see the likes of Sun running its mouth off on its upcoming 16-core UltraSPARC chips, and Intel throwing around its research on 80-core processors, the 9 cores in Cell seem, well, piss weak.
(Yes, 9 cores – 8 SPEs and 1 PowerPC processor. Don’t be a hater.)
Sony Giving Up on Cell Chip R&D [GameDaily] More » 
