Sony already working on Cell Chip sequel???

[Kurt Angle]

The electronics colossus and Toshiba are already starting work on a sequel to the Cell chip.

TOKYO--According to multiple media outlets (including Reuters), Sony and Toshiba are begininning development on a new microprocessor that will be smaller and more powerful than their Cell chip. No project code name has been announced for this new chip, which is expected to be completed by late 2005.

The new chip will be designed with a 45-nanometer circuitry, an architecture that is much narrower than chips used in the current market. Narrower circuitry allows more transistors on a chip, and also allows for a higher maximum clock speed. It can also reduce the size of the chips, allowing the manufacturer to efficiently produce more chips out of a single wafer.

In the current market, 90-nanometer circuitry chips are considered state-of-the-art. PSX, Sony\'s latest console product released last year, utilized a CPU with 90-nanometer circuitry. But even the PSX came under debate from researchers who questioned if its chip was completely developed under the architecture. Starting from this month, Intel is also releasing "Prescott" Pentium 4 chips for the PC that run with 90 nanometer circuitry.

The new chip with 45-nanometer circuitry is expected to run with higher capabilities and less energy consumption than the "Cell", a 65-nanometer circuitry microprocessor that is currently in development between Sony, IBM and Toshiba. The Cell, which will be used for multiple products including Sony\'s next-generation game console, is expected to begin mass production in early 2005.

Sony and Toshiba will invest 20 billion yen ($190 million) towards the new chip. Development costs and project staff will be split equally between the two companies. Toshiba\'s laboratory in Japan\'s Yokohama and Oita prefecture will be the site of the development, and approximately 150 engineers will be involved.

While no date has been set for the new chip\'s mass production, analysts expect that it will be released in 2007. While the chip will have multiple capabilities and may possibly be used for a game machine, the two companies have not made any statements on what kind of products will use the new chip.

:eek:

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6089294.html

i would hope they are i would like to see ps3 before i graduate college.

They really took it very seriously

looks like they are doing the same thing they did with ps2, first make chips that are barely doable with current methods. (for ps2 it was 250nm, for ps3 65..)
then try to make cheaper and cheaper versions of it, so it would be financialy feasible to actually sell those things.

this also means that that chip would still be same \'design\' as cell.
(hugely paraller multichip with no too many restrictions of \'sub\' chip components...)

tough they might be investigating what to do for ps4 and other projects. (psp2?) it\'s still too early to give anything away in any form of press releases. for it seems like ps4 should be out at 2010-2014...

uhh.. sorry bout rambling