The Cell processor, known as the heart of the PS3, is being used every day in rather extraordinary situations. IBM has crafted yet another supercomputer, codenamed Roadrunner, which runs at a record-setting petaflop speed. (A petaflop is the equivalent of one thousand trillion calculations per second.) This speed makes Roadrunner twice as fast as the previous best supercomputer.
"We are getting closer to simulating the real world," Bijan Davari, vice president of next generation computing systems at IBM, told BBC News. The computer will be installed in a US government laboratory to monitor the US nuclear stockpile. It will also be used for research into astronomy, genomics and climate change.
The Roadrunner will use less than 20,000 chips, and will use a hybrid design of both conventional supercomputer chips, and PS3's Cell processor. The next design by IBM will be nicknamed "Skynet."
Sean Decker, general manager of Battlefield developer DICE, spoke to VideoGamer.com about their upcoming Mirror's Edge. The first-person platforming/action game made its debut at PlayStation Day, which led some to believe the title was a PS3-exclusive. It's not, but the team is promising to make the most out of the PS3's unique architecture. For example, the team plans on utilizing tilt controls: "The great thing about it is that there's a lot of little things like, Faith there when she's walking like this (points to Mirror's Edge trailer showing Faith tightrope-walking across a beam), Sixaxis controls, super easy to implement and say, OK well just balance it and then you've got it there, as opposed to teaching a player to say, oh let's push this button or that button."
"The other thing is the Cell really allows us to push the resolution of our textures much higher and we've taken full advantage of that as well. So there's a lot of little quirks to it that we really like and our engineers love as well as our designers." However, Decker wouldn't go so far as saying the PS3 version is superior to the Xbox 360 version -- they're simply "different."
Nikko Citigroup upgraded its rating on Sony's stock this morning, predicting it will break even on PS3 costs much earlier than expected. With a Blu-ray drive, Cell chip and RSX graphics technology, the PS3 is an incredibly expensive system to manufacture: one that Sony currently sells at a loss to customers.
Analysts are now predicting August will be when the smaller chips will be used in the PS3. There are no details as to why August has been chosen as the date, but switching over to a smaller Cell processor and RSX graphics chip will undoubtedly lower costs for the Japanese electronics giant.
What could the US Air Force need 300 PS3s for? Military training via Warhawk? Maybe they want to give the troops some recreational games -- some echochrome perhaps? Nope, none of the above. Instead, the USAF will be using the 300 40GB PS3 consoles to conduct a "technology assessment of certain cell processors."
Apparently, the PS3 is perfect for the Air Force's research as it's the only hardware on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics they'll be needing, and it comes at a reasonable price. While we could think of multiple conspiracy theories about this research, we think we'll stay quiet and leave the speculations to you. Besides, right now we've got to tell the USAF that those 40GB PS3s won't be coming with four USB ports and Memory Stick slots like they have listed on the solicitation document. That is ... unless the military is getting a new 40GB model we've never heard about? Highly doubt that one.
Posted Mar 4th 2008 1:30PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
How much do you value your brain? Hopefully enough to know not to fry it by trying to understand all the research, formulas, and theories behind the project to use 16 PS3's to simulate a collision of two black holes. Headed in part by Guarav Khanna at UMassD, the project ... well ... it's hard to explain. Perhaps its our lack of scientific knowledge. Khanna calls the setup the "gravity grid" and have installed Linux on the PS3's to more accurately compute the "ripples" caused by gravitational waves from black holes.
It's complicated stuff, but we're impressed to see yet another use for the PS3 outside of the general gaming audience. If you want to learn more about the project, knock yourself out. We'll just sit back and nod like we understand the implications of this research. It sounds really cool, though!
No, we're not kicking Toshiba while they're down. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. When you read up on Toshiba's purchasing of some Cell manufacturing plants, you might start to imagine Sony and Toshiba have been in talks for quite some time. See, right after Toshiba announced its plans to drop HD DVD, they turned around and finalized a major business deal with Sony -- buying microchip processing facilities in western Japan for the advantageous price of $835 million USD.
Basically, starting in April, Toshiba is going to assist Sony in producing Cell and RSX chips. Take note that in days past, Toshiba didn't really sing praise to either of these technologies and wouldn't put them in their own products. Now they sing a different tune. Sony and Toshiba were in talks since last October about these facilities but couldn't agree on a price -- the fall of HD DVD may have led both to find a resolution and we're glad to have Toshiba on board.
Posted Feb 22nd 2008 3:30PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
It seems Sony and the FCC have a little deal going on, as they've filed for a change regarding the PS3 besides the wireless module. Sony's letter states that "this is not to cause any modification to the mentioned electric characteristics and RF characteristics". While our mumbo-jumbo isn't fluent, we want to assume Sony is going to create future PS3's with the new 45nm Cell chip inside. That's our two cents, but it's really anyone's guess as this is all just speculation on our part.
What's all this talk about a 65nm Cell processor? That's so 2007! At the ISSCC -- that's the International Solid State Circuits Conference -- Sony is going to unveil its newest creation, the 45nm Cell chip (not pictured above ... it's practically invisible). This form of the processor will consume 40% less energy than the 65nm chip. Sony is working on getting the chip out there, but we've no idea if there are plans to incorporate it into the next wave of PS3 machines. Still, it's very cool to see a chip so very, very small able to do so many, many things.
Posted Jan 12th 2008 2:30PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
The Cell processor, a key component in the PS3, has been making headlines all over the place this week. This latest bit of news for your mastication and consumption comes from Toshiba again. Remember how they put the Cell in an HDTV just for kicks? Now they've slapped the sexy processor in a laptop. It makes up the backbone of their new Spurs Engine -- a laptop that has motion-sensing, video-indexing, face-morphing, upscaling madness.
Imagine footage from a mobile phone or camera getting processed heavily from their crappy resolution into 1080p -- this laptop can do it and from the demonstrations, it doesn't look that bad at all. It's not going to look like it's 1080p, but it won't be blocky and horrid to look at. YouTube lowered our standards, after all. We'd talk more about it, but there's a video of the demonstration available -- check it out and get ready to wish for another electronic device to utilize the Cell Processor.
Posted Jan 11th 2008 6:30PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
What would a TV be like if it used the Cell Processor as the base for its technology? Toshiba asked themselves this question and built a prototype television utilizing the Cell and we have to say -- it's almost sensory overload. First off, real-time upscaling of regular ol' TV to high-definition is done flawlessly. No need to pay a premium for HD channels, we guess. The TV will do you one better -- in addition to upscaling the picture, you can actually zoom in on the picture being shown in real-time and the picture will auto-focus and re-upscale itself. Impressive? You bet. Useful? If you're analyzing a sports game, perhaps.
How about this: instead of channel surfing one channel at a time, the Cell allows your television to display multiple channels simultaneously. It's like picture-in-picture, but 48 of them. Or 24, depending how you interpret our math. Clicking on one of these thumbnails brings up the video in the bottom half of the screen while the top half continues to stream the other channels; push whatever the button is again and it moves to full-screen. These small thumbnails are in standard definition -- if they were in HD, the TV would only be able to stream six of them at once. Other features haven't been decided on yet, but with that at the very outset you can bet this will be the ultimate TV set to own in the coming years. Color us impressed.
Posted Jan 11th 2008 5:00AM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
Sony really hates cancer. So should you.
PS3's Cell chip is being used to monitor a tumor's growth through CT (computed tomography) scans. According to Popular Mechanics, the Cell chip may be able to speed up CT scan results tenfold. That would offer earlier opportunities for diagnosis, treatment and preventative measures. Due to the mass scale production of the Cell chip for PS3s, researchers are hoping this will provide an affordable way of offering medical facilities the powerful computing necessary for advanced CT scans.
This isn't the only time the PS3 has been used in the scientific community. PS3 Fanboy readers are familiar with Folding@home, which is used to analyze the way proteins fold. Looks like the Cell chip inside the PS3 really is quite incredible.
Coupled with a cheaper model and an extensive marketing push, the PS3 is positioned to have a very successful holiday season. And despite the PS3's bumpy start, which we recently chronicled, Sony's CEO Sir Howard Stringer believes the PlayStation 3 will be every bit as successful as the PS2 for the rest of the year and onward.
"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," he said. "It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now -- particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party -- is the same as it was with PlayStation 2."
However, Stringer admits it's taken awhile for developers to gain the full understanding of PlayStation 3 development, but it was no different than when the PS2 was still in its infancy. "It takes time to build a new format [and the PS3 is] not behind the curve compared to PlayStation 2 in terms of momentum," he added. "The amount of bandwidth and the processing power of Cell give game manufacturers a lot more work to do to use this system to its full benefit -- and it's taken awhile to do it. The same was true of PlayStation 2." With PS3 titles increasingly pushing the graphical and gameplay boundaries once thought impossible, we absolutely believe him.
Posted Oct 31st 2007 12:45PM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
Folding@home continues to get the attention of the mainstream media. PS3's large network of Cell-enabled PS3 systems has significantly boosted the abilities of Stanford University's research program. So much so, in fact, that the program recently was recognized by the Guinness Records. Over 670,000 unique PS3 users have registered to the Folding@home network, and combined they have achieved the petaflop mark on September 23, 2007. This has placed the program as the most powerful distributed computing network ever.
"To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Without them we would not be able to make the advancements we have made in our studies of several different diseases. But it is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds."
"To have PS3 play such a large role in allowing Folding@home to be honored by Guinness World Records is truly incredible," said Masayuki Chatani, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Technology Platform, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "This record is clear evidence of the power of PS3 and the contributions that it is making to the Folding@home network, and more importantly, scientific research."
Sony has officially announced a deal where they will sell Cell production facilities to Toshiba. The Cell chip, which was developed in part by IBM and Toshiba, is regarded as the main reason why PS3 is so powerful. Production facilities for the chip will be sold to Toshiba in a deal that's worth an estimated 130 billion yen ($1.1 billion US).
Due to the sluggish sales of the console, Sony will need to reduce losses from the games division to something more acceptable. Osamu Hirose, analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center, notes that this is a good step in the right direction for the beleaguered electronics company. "In this context, the spin-off of the chip business, which requires continued and heavy investment, is positive for Sony," he said.
Sony will also sell RSX (the graphics chip of the PS3) manufacture to Toshiba. Sony stock rose 0.6 percent after the announcement.
Posted Oct 17th 2007 7:15PM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
Cell's immense power is largely undisputed by the scientific community. Folding@Home is just one example of how Cell and the PS3 can compute massive amounts of data for the sake of scientific research. An astrophysicist recently linked eight PS3 systems together and was able to compute the same amount of data as 200 supercomputers. After Gaurav Khanna created code optimized for the PS3, Sony took attention and donated a few systems to his research.
"Basically, it's almost like a replacement," he told Wired. "I don't have to use that supercomputer anymore, which is a good thing." While one PS3 costs $500, a single supercomputer can cost $5000. The cost of eight PS3s is incredibly negligible compared to the massive cost of traditional supercomputers.
With his PS3s at hand, Khanna will be researching gravitational waves.
The Cell processor, known as the heart of the PS3, is being used every day in rather extraordinary situations. IBM has crafted yet another supercomputer, codenamed Roadrunner, which runs at a record-setting petaflop speed. (A petaflop is the equivalent of one thousand trillion calculations per second.) This speed makes Roadrunner twice as fast as the previous best supercomputer.
