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Sony's 'Cell'-based TV Ready By 2006
News for nerds writes "Sony Corp plans to offer a broadband television by 2006 that would incorporate the powerful new 'Cell' processor it is developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp. The Cell processor is expected to power the upcoming PS3 console, a workstation, server, and other home appliances to form Cell-based P2P network. The sample production of the processor has already started. In PlayStation 3, TV props you!"
The western world shudders every time Sony rumbles with the threat of another microprocessor. The Sony Processor is some magical beast that will topple Intel. Vague references to Detroit in 1974 abound, or, the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, for the more obtuse.
But yet I wonder if Intel will really be toppled? Will there be a magic Sony box to shake Wintel's growing foothold into Sony's traditional spaces? I don't think so.
This is my sig.
Not sure if you've seen this before, but check out The Civil War Inside Sony. It's a fascinating look at how the interests of Sony the electronics company are in conflict with those of Sony the media giant.
In essence, the electronics division knows they're losing ground because of their emphasis on DRM and proprietary solutions, but their hands are tied.
They could be Apple x 10, if they didn't use proprietary hardware?
I'm thinking something along the lines of Apple times 10. But, they insist on using proprietary hardware and software.
=]
Also, most Sony CD players support MP3 as well as Atrac3. Minidiscs dont, however.
Not really adding anything, just pointing out a few things, I agree with you, honest!
Because Sony is NOT going to change their mind -- nor should they, because as you list their failures, I could make an equally large list of successes. Things like the Trinitron tube, the Walkman, the compact disc . . .
I'm with ya until the bold part. Sony didn't invent the CD, James Russell did, and it was popularized by Philips.
Otherwise, your good points are well made.
everything in moderation
Try this one:
1) Sony sells Cells.
2) Sony builds the biggest distributed computing network ever.
3) Sony gives you free access to their gaming network if you make unused cycle available for their use.
4) Profit! Sony profits selling untold computing power to the highest bidder whilst making millions of gamers happy that they have no subscription fees to pay.
6) (optional) Masses flee xBox Live (which I'll admit, is pretty cool).
"That said, I also prefer PPC processors to x86 ones. The design is much more sensible and also gives much better performance to power used ratio. I'm sorry, but I don't want the latest AMD or Intel monstrosity sucking juice from my outlet like it was a keg at a frat party."
Right. Because the new 6W AMD Geode x86 CPU (esentially an Athlon XP 1500+) isn't low power at all.
Oh, and the 21W Dothan isn't low power either. Neither is the 10W low-voltage unit.
Oh, and the 35W Opteron EE really sucks down the current.
The whole "PowerPC gives better performance to wattage" thing is bunk. It does, but only if you compare it to the 100W Prescott. MHz for MHz, PowerPC G4 is about equivilent to Athlon XP (may vary based on application, yadda yadda). So the new AMD 6W Geode (essentially an Athlon XP at 1GHz) should offer similar performance to the 1GHz PowerPC G4 in the iBook (note that practically any modern PC notebook will outperform the PowerBooks and iBooks in real world apps because the PB and iBook are FSB starved - DDR333 doesn't do you any good when your FSB is 166MHz/non-DDR).
"In short. Apple uses very little proprietary stuff these days. Yes, there are exceptions."
Point taken. Apple has moved increasingly towards standardized hardware and software.
Anyway, if you want a cool, quiet, long-running notebook, try the Compaq Armada M300. 3.1lbs (with battery), 600MHz Pentium III (with SpeedStep), 3 hour battery life, built-in Intel Pro/100 ethernet and modem, USB, a cardbus slot for wifi, nice XGA screen, decent keyboard, magnesium case.
Oh, and it's about $400 on eBay. Try getting an Apple system with an XGA screen for that price.
Why should I care about Sony's cell processor technology? I'm not asking to troll. I really want to know what all the hullabaloo is about. What capabilities will it bring to us consumers that we could not possibly get elsewhere?
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
As an engineer with a lot of inside story, I have to disagree with you on a lot of points.
Sony does not make high-quality consumer products. They make them as CHEAPLY as possible and bank on their huge name. The only "research" they do *these days* is how to manufacture their products even more cheaply.
In the 1970's and early '80s, Sony's name meant something. As an example, Sony tape recorders were made with very high-quality parts, durable metal gears that didn't break and belts that would literally last forever.
Fast forward to today, the majority of the mechanisms used in ALL of their consumer products are cheap plastic, very prone to breaking or fatigue. Instead of designing the equipment for servicability (i.e. if a part is broken, remove it and replace it) they make entire sub-assemblies in cheap plastic that they suggest you rip out or even physically *break* and replace with another sub-assembly (which is prone to same problems) if there are any problems.
An EE friend of mine who used to be in the quality control division of Sony was telling me how the circuit boards in many of the Sony TVs would often physically break or crack because Sony was too cheap to design/re-design the units with proper enforcement near heavy areas of the board (i.e. where a transformer or HOT sits).
He also told me how Sony had notoriously bad quality control on the manufacturing on the PCBs, frequently resulting in cold solder joints. He also told me about how he got in trouble when he tried to address these issues...
Google for bad solder joint Sony TV and you'll probably get a few hundred hits (or just check repairfaq.org).
These kinds problems have been around for a long time and they don't care to fix them since fools still pay high $ for their crap.
Sony isn't the only one that makes cheap consumer goods though. In fact just about every decent Japanese brand-name (Panasonic, Toshiba, etc) has moved from high-quality mechanisms and quality Japanese manufacturing to cheap plastic parts and made-in-China syndrome. Open almost up any TV, VCR or consumer product (Sony's included) and you'll see a cheap 1-layer circuit board made of a paper substrate.
Unlike Sony though, most of the other guys don't charge some un-godly amount of $$ pretending to be technically superior.
And with respect to Sony's proprietary standards, they only serve to fragment the market and lock you in to their equipment. ("My camera has a memory stick port, yeah I might as well get a VAIO since it too has memory stick port and I know it will play nicely").
CF cards have always been faster than memory stick (simplifying a little, it takes a clock rate of 4x for a 4-bit bus to beat a CF 16-bit bus, which Sony isn't doing) but didn't appear in mass quantity until the cameras and other equipment could take advantage of it. And the memory sticks started out at 64MB while CF had already gone to 256MB+ (and 1GB if you consider the Microdrive).
Face it, there was not real innovation in Memory Stick, it was just another reason for Sony to screw you and push you towards "a Sony life" (all Sony products in your house). If you really needed "small" memory form factor, SD/MMC was an industry standard way before Memory Stick showed up (though not open unlike CF).
And if there wasn't already enough reason to hate Sony, their customer service is the *WORST*, even for Sony employees!
I was helping a friend with a VAIO laptop which had recently gone out of warranty. The video cable connecting the mainboard to the LCD had an internal break, so the LCD was not functioning correctly (weird horizontal lines, etc).
I tried to call Sony technical support to get a part number so we could get a replacement part. Guess what? You had to PAY just to *talk* with "technical support" (a $29.95 charge or something) if the unit isn't in it's 1-year warranty period.
Only a company like Sony could get away with that shit...
Oh, and if you think Apple is "high-qua