PS3 Cell specs

[Wizard]

Their TVs after 2000 are pretty good, their good if you get them on sale especially.

 

Gryph: That thing is gonna get hyped with big numbers and you know it. Xbox delivered, Nintendo also(real world vs stupid renders), now let's see if Sony can actually get up to their hype.

Edited January 25, 2005 by K`dash

[Gryph]

Yeah, everytime I read anything by them the words EMOTION ENGINE come slap me in the face.

[Agozer]

Yeah, everytime I read anything by them the words EMOTION ENGINE come slap me in the face.

ROFL. Really? I wonder...

[Daeval]

sony fan boys are like adult nintendo fanboys... they diss anything thats not sony. I saw this group of ps2 fans once at game store , theses guys had to be in there 20s. One of them said he was thinking of getting an xbox for xbox live. The rest were like hell no xbox is cheap i hear they break then less then a week and then they went on about how GREAT PS2 is. I almost wanted to ask what the flock they been smokin since thats the ps2s problem... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Having worked video game retail for over a year, I can safely say that problem is now basically gone from both systems. New PS2s haven't regularly had that or the "blue disc" issue for a while. And the XBox went through basically the same issue in late 2003/early 2004. So basically, it WAS valid to say that of either system, but not really at all anymore. Now it's basically fanboy fodder for either side. Stupid fanboys.

[Prican25]

From IGN.com

PS3 Power: Details on Cell

Sony, IBM and Toshiba unveil hard specs behind the upcoming PS3 processor.

By Chris Roper

February 7, 2005 - Sony Computer Entertainment, IBM and Toshiba held a press conference in downtown San Francisco this morning to unveil more details on their collaborative Cell processor. While there are still a few details and bits of information that the three companies are keeping mum about for the moment, they did reveal and confirm plenty of specs that had been only rumors and guesses for some time now.

 

 

 

For those of you who like reading numbers more than words, here are some raw specs (which we'll discuss below):

 

 

Each Cell processor contains 8 Synergistic Processing Units and a single 64-bit Power Architecture Unit (All are RISC designs with SIMD)

 

Operates at >4GHz and capable of >256GFLOPS

 

256KB Local Storage per SPU and 512KB L2 Cache (2.5MB total)

 

128+ concurrent transactions to memory per processor

 

High-speed internal element interconnect performing at 96B/cycle

 

234 million transistors

 

Prototype die size of 221mm^2

 

Fabricated with 90nm SOI process technology

 

Backtracking for just a second to cover those who haven't been following recent events (for example, we've put a man on the moon), the Cell microprocessor is a multi-core processor that's designed to handle a large number of tasks simultaneously. The first known major use of the Cell processor will be Sony's next-generation gaming machine, which we'll refer to as PlayStation 3 for the time being (Sony has yet to announce its official name, but you can bet on PS3).

 

While there wasn't any mention of PlayStation 3 at the press conference per-se, you can assume that the following specs will be very close to what will be going into the system. While Cell is being called a "supercomputer on a chip", NVIDIA will actually be providing the GPU in Sony's next system, which you can read more about here. Knowing that, if Cell is anywhere near as fast as what the rumors and these specs say, we'll have our hands on an extremely fast console by the end of 2006 (if the rumored release time stands true).

For the record, a wafer was actually shown at the press conference, proving that processors are actually coming off the line. It's good to know this thing actually exists.

 

A "specific" Cell processor was discussed at the conference. By "specific" we mean a certain design, though not necessarily clock speed. Cell is designed to be a scalable processor, meaning that more or fewer cores could be built into a single Cell processor. The following specs are based on the processor design that was discussed at the conference. Workstations, servers or other applications built with more cores could theoretically be many times faster.

 

The Cell processor that was discussed at the press conference is made up of 9 separate cores. There is a single 64-bit Power Processing Element (or Power Architecture Core) and 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). The Power Processor Element (PPE) can best be thought of as a variation of a Power PC processor, though its an entirely new design, intending on "overseeing" the work of the whole Cell processor. The PPE sends off various instructions to the 8 SPEs which can then work autonomously.

 

Sony, IBM and Toshiba said that they have ran Cell processors at "greater than 4GHz", though they wouldn't name an exact speed. Performance of the processor is said to be in excess of 256GFLOPS (256 billion floating-point operations per second). That's an extremely large number, the sort that you normally throw around when you're talking about arrays of multiple processors or even supercomputers. Measuring FLOPS can be done in a few different ways, but as a comparable number the highest you could get from a fast Pentium 4 these days is somewhere in the upper 20's.

 

Cell is claimed to have "10X performance for many applications", which is in line with these numbers. The Power Processor Element can handle two threads simultaneously while each SPE can handle one, making for a total of 10 simultaneous threads, in line with the 10X performance number they're claiming. Sony, IBM and Toshiba declined to specify exactly which applications they were talking when they mentioned 10X performance, though we'd assume it's pure number crunching or data compression or encryption, those sorts of things.

 

Obviously, real-world performance for any processor is entirely dependent on how well any given piece of software is written for it, especially so for multi-processor (and multi-core) machines. When asked about how one would go about programming for Cell or how difficult the task of managing the SPEs would be, an IBM rep stated that there would be multiple programming models, allowing for different approaches to programming for Cell. Each programmer could theoretically pick and choose which method they like to work with and program that way. It was also said that language compilers for Cell (for C, C++, etc.) would be released as open-source so that anyone could learn to tinker with its innards or possibly mold a compiler around a separate programming style for different needs.

 

With something as powerful as Cell appears to be, heat is obviously a concern. The three companies behind it say that it runs solely on air-cooling, just as any desktop processor does. Cell also has built-in power management for keeping itself running cool, capable of operating at five separate power states.

 

So, there you have it. Sounds impressive indeed, though we have yet to actually see Cell running in any sort of real-world scenario. If the performance numbers that Sony, IBM and Toshiba claim are realistic, and more importantly, Cell is reasonable to program for, then we'll be looking at some insanely powerful hardware in the not-too-distant future, including Sony's next-generation console.

 

check out the link to see the wafer of the cpu, damn tiny: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/585/585865p1.html

[NeoMaster]

Nice, I saw this awhile ago. Interesting part about it (only part i understand) is that it's greater than a 4ghz comp.

[Wizard]

Sony and EA should just work together so we can get one big, poorly managed, poor-ass quality, ninja disc throwing, products.

Their puny cell processor ain't worth jack yet.

 

Wait until they show off the real stuff, then everything gets shot to hell right there.

 

I was looking at some old PS2 tech demos. They were REALLY nice. The quality from tech demo to an actual game has come a long way.

[Gryph]

Nice, I saw this awhile ago. Interesting part about it (only part i understand) is that it's greater than a 4ghz comp.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm more impressed by the simulataneous processing of 10 instruction sequences. But make no mistake, those numbers mean nothing if not properly used. This is the most important line in that entire article "If the performance numbers that Sony, IBM and Toshiba claim are realistic, and more importantly, Cell is reasonable to program for, then we'll be looking at some insanely powerful hardware in the not-too-distant future, including Sony's next-generation console."

 

Now I'm going to see how big of a threat this is to x86-64. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Intel (and to a lesser degree AMD, they don't have as large an R&D budget) came out with a kind of processor that matches the CELL by the time it comes out. Remember, the first Cell devices should be out mid to late next year.

[Leathel]

I was reading the news from today's Cell exposure running at 4.6Ghz, :whew: will it really run this fast in the PS3? Incredible hopefully the 65nm shrinking will help to keep it cool, but I imagine that it won't be a quiet console, unless it used other than conventional cooling.

I think that even if PS3 would run at 3.0Ghz it would compute more than a 7Ghz intel cpu. I don't think there'll be an emulator for this for years to come, lol :whew:

[Gryph]

Hey, they might be able to run a PS2 emulator on it.

[Leathel]

Hey, they might be able to run a PS2 emulator on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

haha - well it is PS2 compatable isn't it? they don't even need to have a PS1 core - just run thru an emulator with better filtering thatn PS2 lol

maybe an XBOX2 emulator for PS3 - that would be WoOtabolous!!!

[bubbawmu2]

i love my ps2, i loved my playstation, and i will love the ps3

[Agozer]

I will simply get a PS3 because of backwards compatibility... and as far as I know, it's done through emulation of sorts.

[Sultan]

Hey, they might be able to run a PS2 emulator on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

haha - well it is PS2 compatable isn't it? they don't even need to have a PS1 core - just run thru an emulator with better filtering thatn PS2 lol

maybe an XBOX2 emulator for PS3 - that would be WoOtabolous!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Why stop there? The wildest expectations of the Cell would have us believe you could emulate an Intel dual-core P4 (which will be what intel is selling when the ps3 hits the market). It should be noted a lot of doubt has been cast on that article I originally posted here that talked about the Cell rivaling supercomputers.

 

It really does come down to the programming as to whether or not the processor will live up to expectations. The hardware is there, but if you can't break down commands in a way that utilizes all 8 PU's at once, then you're not really going to see the super speeds. I found it interesting that the article mentioned an open source library of C++ functions would be released. This should greatly improve the chances of seeing someone write a compiler and x86 emulator for it that would allow it to compete with PCs by running their software.

[Wizard]

I doubt it runs at 4.xxGhz and will go the similar AMD way with lower core speed, yet it yeilds results as good as a 4 GHz P4.

Intel's EM64(You know them, refusing to say "AMD64") could be matched up or better then Cell when they both eventually come out.