PlayStation 3

The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be the new upcoming video game console in Sony's PlayStation series. IBM has won the contract to produce microchips for this new console. Sony said that there a hopes that the PS3 will be 1,000 times as powerful as the PlayStation 2 (PS2), though such a claim is may be exaggerated as it would be far ahead of what Moore's Law would predict.

According to Sony, the chip, codenamed "Cell" which will feature 0.10 micron technology, will be designed for broadband, allowing communication with intelligent devices and the internet (which presumably means the device will support Ethernet connections). There will be software that comes with the PS3 for online shopping, banking, and other services.

The chip is currently being developed at an IBM laboratory in Austin, Texas, and will be produced at a plant in East Fishkill, New York.

Simplex Solutions has said that they are developing the GS (graphics synthesizer) chip that will go with the PS3. It will be a 0.18 micron chip about twice the size of the PS2 version. Also, it will feature 256MB of DRAM and will be able to handle 75 million polygons per second with a rate of up to 2.6 billion pixels a second.

"This isn't just an extension of what we've done in the past. We're aiming to create something fundamentally different," said a Sony spokesman.

Right now, it looks like the PlayStation 3 will ship sometime around 2004-2006.

References:

• IBM wins Playstation 3 contract, 12 March (2001) on BBC [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1216000/1216551.stm)