PS3 Central Processor - The Cell
The PS3's central processing unit is a multi-core chip produced through a partnership between Sony, IBM, and Toshiba and is codenamed 'the cell'. This 'beta' name will probably change as soon is it is realeased for production. The processor uses a method of communicating between the central core and the SPEs (synergistic processing elements) called chip to chip interface. This allows the processor to move at an astonishing speed of 256 GFLOPS (or floating point operations per second). There is a total of 9 cores. The main core is a Power PC processor which controls the other 8 cores (one of which is reserved) through an element interface bus. The version planned for the final release of the Playstation 3 is expected to be 65nm and run at 4.6Ghz. The cell chip contains 234 million transisters and is 221 square milimeters in size.
With this power the PS3 will be in the forefront of video gaming for at least a few years. One of the earliest demonstrations of the cell chip was in IBM labs comparing 'the cell' to a typical Pentium 4 processor. They rendered an exact 3D still simulation of the entire surface area of Mt. Saint Helens. The Pentium 4 computer rendered it in about a day while the cell processor powered computer rendered the mountain just a few minutes.
by Tim Johns of PS3xs
