The Ps.2 on a 0,13u process

[nO-One]

I found this on the Ars frontpage interesting news.

Yup, you read right. Sony and Toshiba will be moving to a 0.13 micron process for the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synth. What does this mean for you? Well, for one it\'ll mean that PS2 prices will go down as they\'ll be able to produce more chips at less cost.  The other thing that it\'ll mean is that Sony can increase the clock speeds of the two chips, meaning that workstations and such based on them will be more powerful. If you\'ll recall my editorial on Sony\'s decision to "open" the PS2, then you know what I\'m talking about when I speak of EE + GS-based workstations. Here\'s a part of the editorial that relates to the latest process shrink:

Both the EE and GS are currently made on a 0.25µ CMOS process. When Sony moves to a 0.18µ process the first thing that\'ll happen is that they\'ll be able to sell both parts at higher clock speeds and/or lower wattages. Right now, for instance, the EE runs at 300MHz and dissipates an average of 18W. Once the feature size shrinks to 0.18µ, they\'ll be able to sell the EE at higher clock speeds, targeting it at the server and workstation markets. Or, they could sell it at lower clock speeds and with less power consumption and target it at the embedded market.

Another possible way that Sony could exploit the shrink in process size would be to add more cache to the EE or more VRAM to the GS. Sony actually mentioned the latter option explicitly in the EET coverage. The GS\'s 4MB of VRAM is embedded on the die, giving it an insane bandwidth of 48.6 GB/sec. Sony can spend more transistors and crank up the VRAM size to 32MB, giving the GS some serious memory to go along with all that bandwidth. As the EET notes, this will allow the GS to crank out the ever higher resolutions needed in the graphics workstation market.

I think that the reason none of my predictions of workstations and embedded systems based on the EE and GS have come true yet is that Sony can\'t even meet the demand for PS2\'s, much less develop and supply a whole new market for PS2 technology. Perhaps this process yield will be what they need to take things to the next level. -Hannibal

If only this could have happened sooner say before they launched the PS.2.

here\'s a link to Ars and here\'s a link to the original story

[BizioEE]

Thanks for the info!  

It certainly doesn\'t mean they will charge less money, it just means that it will cost them less to make the system. Will those saving be passed down to the consumer? No. Not until they have some competition, at the earliest.

[nO-One]

They will not lower the price.They have to make up for their losses they\'ve been having with the PS.2.

Will the New Playstation 2 system with the .13 micron run programs faster?

Does this mean people that spent £350 or more will have an inferior PS2 already?

[nO-One]

No this basically means it\'s easier for Sony to produce chips.And there is more Sony can do with technoligy in the graphics workstation market.
Sony can\'t make drastic changes to the PS.2 even if they wanted to,there are too many unit\'s on the market.
And there is always some changes made to the machine after some time.

It will just help SOny manufacture cheaper


The PS2 will follow normal price breaks, probably this Xmas

It also helps SOny perfect the smaller wafer process will be used in future chips and will be able to run much faster, but will not have any effect on this generations hardware besides cost reduction and heat dissapation

this new 0.13 or 0.18 chip will be cheaper to produce for SONY..so if SONY sells the new PS2s when they come out with this chip in it..SONY will be making money off of the systems instead of what they are doing now..which is LOSING money

you wont see a price drop within another year..they MIGHT drop the price when XBOX comes out..but they have to see what Microsoft is going to release the XBOX for inorder to compete with its price. if the XBOX is going to be $300+, then i suggest SONY to leave it at the $300 mark

But a 32 MB Vram compared to the original PS2 sure makes a big difference.If developers start using 32MB of streaming VRAM how would the 4MB vram compete.

[nO-One]

Another possible way that Sony could exploit the shrink in process size would be to add more cache to the EE or more VRAM to the GS. Sony actually mentioned the latter option explicitly in the EET coverage. The GS\'s 4MB of VRAM is embedded on the die, giving it an insane bandwidth of 48.6 GB/sec. Sony can spend more transistors and crank up the VRAM size to 32MB, giving the GS some serious memory to go along with all that bandwidth. As the EET notes, this will allow the GS to crank out the ever higher resolutions needed in the graphics workstation market.

They can\'t put 32 megs on the PS.2 now.Developers would develop their games to use those 32megs and the games would be incompatable with the million machines already out there.

So that means 32MB will only be included in GS graphics workstations but not in future PS2s?

[nO-One]

Yup.
If they\'d put 32mb on the PS.2 I would be very surprised.