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Playstation/Gaming Discussions => PS3 Discussion => Topic started by: Evi on February 03, 2004, 07:30:45 PM

Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Evi on February 03, 2004, 07:30:45 PM
"Sony has announced that during its next business year, starting in April, 120 billion yen will go towards development of its new "cell" chip. The money will be allocated between Sony\'s plants in Japan and New York and Toshiba\'s plant in Japan. As Sony\'s partner in the "cell" chip manufacturing, Toshiba has also announced that it will be providing another 42 billion yen to upgrade its own plant.

The "cell" chip is planned to use a new 65-nanometer circuitry in order to enable the chips to be smaller and more powerful. This circuitry will reside on a large 300 mm wafer. In comparison, Sony\'s PSX device, a combination PS2/DVR/DVD recorder sold in Japan, uses 90-nanometer circuitry. Sony aims at having a combined monthly output of 15,000 300 mm wafers a month and will start test production in early 2005.

The "cell" chip will be at the heart of the upcoming PS3, but Sony has more than games in mind for it. Sony is looking towards using the "cell" chip for a variety of consumer electronics products. "Through these investments in semiconductors that will be at the heart of future digital consumer electronics, we believe we can differentiate our products from the competition," Sony spokeswoman Harumi Asai said."
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: THX on February 03, 2004, 08:11:29 PM
I\'m tempted to say it\'s just more hype (which it is) but it does sound cool.  How can they spend so much money on a single chip?  Sounds like it wll be used for HD Blu-ray decoding on the electronics side.  Maybe even to capture and encode icoming HD on the fly, though that\'s really hard to imagine.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Paul2 on February 03, 2004, 11:24:35 PM
Sound interesting, but its hype too.  If Sony wanted me to buy their PS3, it must have HD-DVD Blu Ray playback.  Like the reason with PS2, the reason why i was so anxious with owning a ps2 is because of dvd playback and psx backward compatible.  Not just a ps2 graphic power.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: videoholic on February 04, 2004, 04:24:41 AM
15,000 300mm wafers a month..

How many chips are on a wafer?  I hope quite a few or I won\'t be seeing a PS3 till 2010.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: GmanJoe on February 04, 2004, 05:11:00 AM
Quote
Originally posted by videoholic
15,000 300mm wafers a month..

How many chips are on a wafer?  I hope quite a few or I won\'t be seeing a PS3 till 2010.


Quote
Sony aims at having a combined monthly output of 15,000 300 mm wafers a month and will start test production in early 2005.



It\'s  just a pre-test thingy....before they start test production. Sorta like revving the engine without going into gear. I guess. :)
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: cervantes on February 04, 2004, 01:12:58 PM
So it\'s possibly hype and bullshit. Remember the hype for the monstrous "Emotion Engine". Haha, what a load of crap that was.

:nopics:

I guess "Cell" is the new buzzword that\'s going to be thrown back and forth when it comes to saying how amazing the PS3 will be?
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Lord Nicon on February 04, 2004, 01:49:19 PM
Good ol Cervantes just as positive as usual. Anyway, its always about hype. Its a driving force to fuel the minds of casual gamers. We all know that casual gamers dont know $#!t and thus the industry has gone into the bad habit of churning out lackluster products.

Im just interested to see how the first demos look. Or even the first specs (but of course they are always blown up to insane numbers that can never be reached in real-time).
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Kurt Angle on February 04, 2004, 02:33:37 PM
It\'s not just specs that are important, its the games too.

I prefer to let the games do the talking on how good a machine is.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: cervantes on February 05, 2004, 11:25:40 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Lord Nicon
Good ol Cervantes just as positive as usual. Anyway, its always about hype. Its a driving force to fuel the minds of casual gamers. We all know that casual gamers dont know $#!t and thus the industry has gone into the bad habit of churning out lackluster products.

Im just interested to see how the first demos look. Or even the first specs (but of course they are always blown up to insane numbers that can never be reached in real-time).


Lol, I just tell it how it is. And judging from your comment you\'re in agreement, no?
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: fastson on February 05, 2004, 11:45:52 AM
I just hope we get to see something this E3.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Evi on February 05, 2004, 06:16:57 PM
Quote
Originally posted by fastson
I just hope we get to see something this E3.
Yes...start praying now...
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: clips on February 06, 2004, 11:47:47 PM
whatever happened to the hdd? we\'re almost at the end of the cycle as far as this generation is concerned & no hard drive. Not that i would probably get one but there was so much hype about that & now it\'s like it fell off the radar (i know took this a little off topic ;) )
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Heretic on February 07, 2004, 11:17:50 AM
I not 100% sure but I think the HDD will be released next month with FFXI - $90
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Lord Nicon on February 07, 2004, 11:23:05 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Heretic
I not 100% sure but I think the HDD will be released next month with FFXI - $90

Together? Thats a damn good price considering the damn thing was going to sell for about 100 seperately.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Paul2 on February 07, 2004, 11:34:32 AM
^  FF11 with for $90.  Scrams.

FF11 with hdd for $50 <-------very good deal.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Evi on February 07, 2004, 08:03:30 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Paul2
^  FF11 with for $90.  Scrams.

FF11 with hdd for $50 <-------very good deal.
The game won\'t even sell for that cheap...
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Paul2 on February 07, 2004, 08:14:20 PM
But who is square kidding here.  $90 with hdd, i mean seriously.  They charge an additonal $11 per month and some more buck to subscribe online or something.  Meh, i will pass.

This game may give me some interest because it remind me of my very much favorite Final Fantasy Tactics.  But, the price tag doesn\'t like me.  I probably going to skip this game and wait and see what up with FF12.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: clips on February 07, 2004, 09:52:54 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Paul2
But who is square kidding here.  $90 with hdd, i mean seriously.  They charge an additonal $11 per month and some more buck to subscribe online or something.  Meh, i will pass.

This game may give me some interest because it remind me of my very much favorite Final Fantasy Tactics.  But, the price tag doesn\'t like me.  I probably going to skip this game and wait and see what up with FF12.



agreed. at first i thought ff12 was just a ff10 knockoff, but it looks like it will be able to stand on it\'s own. also waiting for the dvd advent children :D
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Paul2 on February 07, 2004, 11:15:49 PM
I heard about FF Advent Children.  I am not sure if it just a movie or it\'s a game/movie both?  It it\'s a movie, can it be play on dvd player or only ps2?  If it can play on dvd player, me want one!
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Unicron! on February 08, 2004, 03:12:17 AM
Rumors appeared in the past in japan that it would be only copmpatible with PS2 or PSP or both if I remember well.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Nolaws on February 08, 2004, 05:54:50 AM
Quote
They charge an additonal $11 per month and some more buck to subscribe online or something


People need to understand that MMO cost a lot for a compagny. they need to pay highend server, load of bandwith, 24/24 7/7 staff for support, tech on server. They need to keep a whole Dev team beacause MMO are continously patched and upgraded.

Its not you favortie battle.net server where you can play 6 player and where they 5 other 10 years old using undred\'s of cheating codes.

You have to play it to see it for your self.

Finanal fantasy include the game, plus the 1st expansion and a HDD + one free month.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: Unicron! on February 08, 2004, 06:05:24 AM
the total cost though exluding the monthly payment sounds expensive alone.
I dont think people would have complained as much if the game+HDD costed less but still had to paid $11 per month.
Title: Sony Pumps $1.1 Billion into the Cell Chip
Post by: THX on February 08, 2004, 09:35:28 PM
I don\'t think the world is ready for decently priced MMOG\'s.  Give it a couple of years and hopefully bandwidth will be so cheap they\'ll be free!  Or hopefully some package type deal like Xbox Live where there\'s one flat fee.