Sony Computer Entertainment has placed a contract with IBM to
develop and produce processors that are expected to form the next
generation of processors for the Playstation 3 console. The new
chip, code-named “Cell,” is due to go into production in 2004.
A joint statement was made by Sony, Toshiba and IBM without
referring to the new Playstation model. Only unnamed sources in the
companies have said that it is for the PS3. However, others suggest
the chip is for a fourth generation Playstation. The Electronics
Times suggests the chip “is likely to take over from the chip
previewed at the last ISSCC which is intended to drive Playstation
3.
The three companies say they will invest more than $400 million
in the next five years to design the Cell, described as a
"supercomputer-on-a-chip," at a development centre within an IBM
facility in Austin, Texas. It will then be mass produced at an IBM
facility in New York which is being constructed at a cost of $3
billion.
The companies say the result will be consumer devices that are
more powerful than IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer, that operate at
low power and that access the broadband internet at ultra high
speeds.
Each company said only that it will manufacture the product for
“a variety of consumer applications.”
Toshiba had designed and built the Playstation 2 processors. For
the new chip, Toshiba is contributing to the $400 million
investment and its engineers will assist at the IBM facility in
Austin.
