Cell Shrinks in 2007

Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi revealed today in an interview with Japan's Impress Watch technology site that the PS3's Cell processor will make the switch to a 65nm manufacturing process in 2007. Shipments of the more efficient chip will make it out later that year.

The Cell is in production at IBM's Fishkill and Sony's Nagasaki fabrication facilities. Currently, the chip is being produced using a 90nm process. Switching to a 65nm process will reduce costs, potentially leading to a price reduction of components that use the chip.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

So.....is he telling everyone to wait, or that the PS3 launch will be pushed back again?
Who in their right mind would buy one at launch if less than a year later a better one will be out? Ken has got to be the biggest dumba$$, Sony needs a new leader. Before Ken kills the company. Looks like I'll be waiting even longer for the PS3!

[Scythesean]

The 360 is doing the same thing right now with it's chips.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

The PS3 isn't out yet, and they are already telling everyone a better one will be coming soon. MS has at least sold 2 million+ consoles!

[TheMART]

they sold more then that. I believe it was somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 million. By June there will be 5 to 5.5 million sold.

[TheMART]

I only will believe when I'm seeing after all of Sony's false promises. Let them first get the PS3 out with whatever manufactering process and not delay any further

[PS360PCROCKS]

what the hell? your MORONS! omg it's just cheaper, it's the same chip u jackasses

[Bill Nye]

I don't get how you guys manage to turn this into negative news.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

It will be good if the price comes down after the switch. Will you buy one at launch or wait for a better,more efficent 65nm CELL? By the time they switch the good games will be out.

[OutLaw]

For a company it isn't negative news. But for a consumer who probably drop cash on the PS3 if it comes out this year, Well that sounds like horrible news. Ken should just stay quiet and wait till the release of the PS3. Then give info on what else Sony has planned.

[Bill Nye]

You guys are making this more meaningful than it is. It's not like Cell will receive a performance boost from switching the manufacturing process to 65nm. It's purely cost related on Sony's side.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

65nm processors use less power, meaning less heat! Less heat usally means faster processing.
You can also speed the processor up (overclock)better.

[Bill Nye]

Oh, so the Cell has heat issues? And you're going to overclock the Cell in your PS3?

[Gh0stDrag0n]

Where have you been????? Why all of the delays? The PS3 has issues. BlueRay, Heat, RSX ?????? Who knows? Why announce a new process for developing something that isn't out yet? And yes with less heat using a 65nm process, SONY can crank up the voltage and buss speeds. They might actually be able to give us the specs that are on paper for the PS3.

[OutLaw]

That would answer all the delay problems. I wonder if the PS3 just don't get released this year and they wait till they get this cell done.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

That would have been an option for sony if this was 2005, Sony needs to get the PS3 out this year. They already dropped the ball and are struggling to find it. The 360 has a full year head start and the Wii will probably hit the market first as well. They made fun of MS for "rushing" their next console, looks like Sony got sacked. Now Sony must "rush" to get the PS3 out reguardless of the PS3's quality/performance. Now their only hope is brand loyalty, until they can improve their product.

[Grown Folks Talk]

it just reduces sony's production costs. it's not a better cpu, just more cost effecient and cooler. same thing microsoft is doing. it means if you wait long enough, you might not pay $530 or $640 after tax for your ps3.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

I was wondering........... Why is there an ad for maidenform bras on a game site? I'll admit the chicks are hot, but really ... how many girls visit this site?
Or......... is it free softcore for all the little pudwackers???

[shotty]

I doubt it's going to happen right away since they still haven't got good yields on 90nm so 65nm would yield even lower amounts of cell processors. But like Microsoft said it has no bearing on customers. Both the xbox 360 and ps3 will get a die shrink, it will produce less heat so the manufacturs can use smaller heat sinks so it the end the same amount of heat leaves the system.

[Gh0stDrag0n]

MS would not come out and say their product is now better, that would piss alot of XBOX360 owners off.

[PS360PCROCKS]

IT WONT CHANGE ANYTHING!!! geesh

[Scythesean]

http://www.ps3portal.com/so...

Date Posted: 13 April 2005

The CPU's supposed distributed processing features have lead to speculation that many items in the home, with differing numbers of Cell chips, can pool their power.

Early versions of the chip will be 90-nm, with a change to a 65-nm process, if cost and performance allow. Abstracts from presentations at the ISSCC, show the Cell processor running at 4.6 Ghz.

[TheMART]

I think Ken's d*ck will also shrink the coming years. But hey the PS3 is everything but a gaming console according to him, so maybe he can insert it while on power by his wife...

Come on, it's a weak thing to mention at this moment. The first PS3's won't be bought if people know that after a few months they can buy a PS3 that produces less heat, uses less power and maybe run on the promised 3,2 Ghz instead of the downtuned 2,8 Ghz.

Kennie isn't very smart

[Karibu]

Hows this negative news?!!
You know you get more stable console later isf you wait, they tell you that, shouldn't jump for joy?
If they'd not mention that later youd accuse them for lying!!! From some of your point of view it would OK if sony would delay PS3 when they get that 65nm ready!!

[Cyclonus]

Its the only thing they're good at anyway.

[slugg]

Should, as mentioned above, worry more about getting the yields up on the 90nm chips, get their system out, and if it works as promised, let the PS3 speak for itself. From eveything I've read and people I've talked to in the industry (I am a manager at Gamestop) no real, working, retail versions of the PS3 exist yet. Why? No one knows this, either, but Final dev kits haven't been shipped, either. If PS3 is going to make it out this year, which would be good (and almost necessary) for the industry as a whole, they need to get their act together. Instead of this type of news, Ken, why not tell us the actual launch games list? When demo units will be available? (Word from our corporate headquarters is that Sony may not make any demo units. Sony says: more to sell to consumers. I say: Sony not to excited to have PS3 demo unit in store playing Singstar next to 360 demo unit playing Gears of War) Microsoft pulled everything together at the last minute, so hopefully Sony can, too. But they need to do what M$ did-- show PS3's being boxed on the assembly lines. Have developers announce they have the final dev kits and that everything is as promised: power, features, etc. Sony COULD DO THIS if they choose to, right? So enought with the b.s. hype Ken (and Sony), what is the real deal with the PS3 that is supposed to be out in 5 short months?

[PS360PCROCKS]

yeah they need to show it is actually not a myth, lol, nobodys seen anything on the mythical PS3, I hope they have demo machines, I wanna actually try it, or I could just play my friends, who knows.

[Lucidmantra]

great post slugg I agree before they explore miniturization they better put something out that people can play so they have something to shrink. Once again SOny will backstep their way out of it... They aint going down in size anytime soon till they can get enough PS3s out there to fill storeshelves and at 6 million PS3s made by next E3 they aint going to be there.

[clayton]

Sony has just postponed the launch of its Blu-ray players again, which prompts the question: Is Sony really going to get the PlayStation 3 out this year, even in Japan, and if so, what sort of specificaiton will it have? There seem to be few or no real facts around, but there are plenty of negative rumours.

Over at Kotaku.com, for example, their "Phantom Insider" points out that "Fully functional PS3 betas still do not exist" and suggests the specification will be downgraded again. Either you can't get enough Cell processors at the promised speed or the machine still runs too hot: "The current designs despite having vents all over the place apparently still cant dissipate the heat to sufficient levels", says Kotaku's PI.

The promised compatibility with the PlayStation 2 is also a problem, which Sony is apparently solving by sticking real PS2 chips inside -- at least temporarily.

Since this implies the PS3 hardware design may not really be finished, the obvious solution would be to put it in a bigger box. However, the PlayStation 3 is already the biggest console ever -- even bigger than the original Xbox.

These are just the latest problems in a string of missteps that started with the faked Killzone video shown at last year's E3 games trade show. The result is that Sony's credibility is diminishing fast.

So where did it all go wrong? In my view, Sony has made two big mistakes. The first is the design of the PS3, which seems to be too ambitious for the company to handle.

The whole idea of a games console is that it should be cheap and relatively simple to mass produce -- and cost reduce. That suggests using (mostly) known parts. You can get lots of buyers if your console provides better games than a PC that costs three or four times the price, and that is less hassle to maintain. Trying to produce a console that is ahead of PC technology and costs two or three times as much as a PC to manufacture is insane -- especially since console buyers won't pay an economic price. But that's what Sony is doing.

Sony's second big mistake is strategic, and concerns its use of the Blu-ray disc format.

The PlayStation 2 certainly benefitted from providing buyers with a cheap DVD player as well as a games console. However, the DVD format was agreed in 1995 and the first players went on sale in Japan in 1996. The PlayStation 2 wasn't launched in Japan until March 2000, roughly four years later. By the time most US buyers were shopping for a new games console, DVD was already an attractive and established format.

If Sony intended to repeat this successful strategy, it should have included Blu-ray in the PS4 in 2010-11.

However, with the PS3, Sony is attempting to do the reverse, and pull off a strategy that has never worked. Instead of capitalising on a successful video format, it's trying to use the PS3 to establish what is starting to look like an unsuccessful one.

Look at it this way. The original smash-hit PlayStation was launched in 1995, the same year that the two competing high-density CD camps agreed to back a single format: DVD. What would have happened if Sony had refused to agree a compromise with Toshiba's SD (Super Density) format but decided to use its own system in the PlayStation in 1995 -- and sell it at twice the price?

Would you have bought one? I don't think so....

PlayStation is a huge brand and may well be strong enough to swing it, but there's still a sting in the tail: the more PS3's Sony sells, even at $600, the more money it loses.

It's a safe bet that Microsoft's bean counters have noticed that Sony is financially vulnerable, and I'll be surprised if Sony isn't walking into a price war. And if you have to fight a price war, it's better not to face a company with $38 billion in the bank.

[Lionel Hutz]

I agree with much of what you said, but Sony as a company is actually larger than Microsoft. So, that $38 billion isn't as high as one would think.