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45nm Cell/B.E. shrink in the works

by on08 February 2008
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CPU will be lower priced and cooler


IBM will be shrinking the Cell Broadband Engine that is at the heart of the PlayStation 3 to the 45nm high—k process, according to information released yesterday at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.

This is, of course, good news for Sony as the move from the current 65nm SOI process to the 45nm  high—k process should yield a chip that not only is cooler and has lower power consumption requirements. This should help Sony reduce the cost of the PlayStation 3 and also help with the rumored redesign of the PlayStation 3.

While IBM will also benefit from the move of the Cell Broadband Engine to the 45nm  high—k process, Sony will be handling over the manufacturing facilities for Cell/B.E. over to Toshiba who is using the technology under the name of the SpursEngine.

Sony has also announced that it will stop future development efforts on moving the Cell/B.E. to 32nm process, but it will continue to work with IBM and Toshiba on future versions of the Cell/B.E.

Last modified on 11 February 2008
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