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Playstation 3 CPU Almost Finished?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the more-polys-means-more-grand-theft-auto dept.

dnxthx writes "According to this ZDNet article the design of the Playstation 3 chip is nearly complete. The PS3 chip will have near "supercomputer capabilities" --- including 1 TFLOP. Reportedly, this chip is being engineered with Linux in mind."

8 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Linux in mind? by wilburdg · · Score: 2, Informative

    With chip fabrication prices dropping drasticaly, and with OS complexity increasing exponentially it is becoming much more common to design hardware around software.

  2. Re:Late 2004? by slyfox · · Score: 5, Informative
    The article states that they have "taped-out" the design. However, when I visited IBM-Austin last December (I gave a presentation on my research) they were still in the high-level idea phase. There is no way they could have decided on the design and completed it so quickly. My guess is this is a "test chip", like the one they did for Power4. Power4's test chip tested some of the critical circuits and such, but it was not the final design.

    That said, it seemed like they were considering some pretty wild ideas. However, I remember hearing about plans for the Playstation 2 chip a couple of years before it shipped; at the time it was hard to fathom, but when it arrived it wasn't as big a leap as I thought it was going to be. (Though still quite impressive.)

    I expect the Playstation 3 will be just as impressive, but not earth-shattering. They key will be how easy it is to write programs that take advantage of the raw computational power.

  3. Re:Linux in mind? by intermodal · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linux in mind. That means that the person/persons designing it are trying to make it easy to run linux on it. This does not make it linux-specific. If I buy a NIC with a variety of OSes listed on the box from WinXP down to MS-DOS, Win3.1, SCO Unix, and Linux, it is still designed with Linux in mind because compatibility was considered in its development and it means that it will work under linux (supposedly). The reason it was used in such a manner on this article heading (the /. one) is that most people here frankly couldn't care less about whether it'll run Windows or such. Though a teraflop PS3 as a BeBox...that'd be cool

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  4. Re:A terraflop? by quantaman · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, I'm thinking it's a typo and they meant gigaflop. I'm not sure about Intel and AMD but I know G4's have run at over a gigaflop for a few years, right now they have a peak of 15 (dual processor). So a cheap processor for the console market hitting a gigaflop sounds about right. That would also explain the "supercomputer on a chip," as one of the big things about the G4 was that the 1 gigaflop barrier meant it qualified as a supercomputer (and a military weapon:).

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  5. Re:export controls? by qurob · · Score: 2, Informative


    Or Nuke simulators

    Here's more info on computer export laws

  6. Re:Moore's Law is not a law by Esarel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Also, the PS2 used vector processors, and I would assume that the PS3 will as well. This means that in a single clock cycle on one of these processors, four addditions can be performed (but only one divide I believe). They are likely using something more advanced, but just adding a few of these will reduce the clock cycle needed to do this enormously.

  7. Re:export controls? by Ironpoint · · Score: 2, Informative



    That was some marketing BS to promote the PS2. PC hardware was already more powerful than the PS2 at the time and far more accesible. Where, exactly, did they restrict it? Bagdad? I can't sent a piece of paper to Bagdad.

    Yea, and the Mac is a "supercomputer"

  8. Re:Moore's Law is not a law by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 3, Informative

    4 multiply-accumulates, 1 divide. ...and with good reason. Transforming a vertex through the perspective transform takes 16 multiply-accumulates, and 3 divides. So a ratio of 4 fmacs to 1 fdiv unit is pretty optimal.