Individual Cells not as Reliable Because of Complexity

CellAs we have all undoubtedly heard, the Cell Processor, made by Toshiba, Sony and IBM, was designed to be one of the most potent processing systems available to the public today. Unfortunately, life in the real world is revealing that the complex design of the Cell Processor may be too complex to allow for the efficient operation of its entire complement of 8 cells per core.

IBM admits that it accepts chips that have only four out of 8 cells working, blaming the discrepancy on the size and complexity of the chips design. According to IBM VP of Semiconductor and Technology Services Tom Reeves, “with a chip like the Cell Processor you’re lucky to get 10 to 20%” (working). Reeves goes on to say that, “the PS3 requires 7 of the 8 processors to be working,” and that, “Sony will be using Cell Processors whether they have all cores functioning or not.”

Obviously, at this point Sony is hitched to the fate of the Cell Processor no matter what happens. After Sony’s substantial investment of time, money and resources into the processor, changing strategy now would move the project further down the road of disaster. All of this talk about the Cell Processor having various levels of functionality leads to obvious questions about quality control. What if I get one that only has 10% of its capacity functional will I notice a difference?

Should I have to pay the same amount of money for a lesser machine? Another potential pitfall for the processor is the fact that if one cell does happen to “blow out” (cease to function) prematurely, the machine must be sent in for an under warranty repair. If your machine is no longer under warranty then you are apparently out of luck. For those of you out there who have been reading all of this on the verge of tears, about to lose faith in the PS3 take heart!

As far as “blow outs” are concerned, Reeves claims that any problematic cells will be removed during the testing process and it is unlikely that a bad one would make it past QA and into public circulation. Sony apparently will be producing PS3’s with different Cell Processors, but remember, the PS3 only needs 7 cells working to function, so essentially those with 8 working processors will simply have an unnecessary or spare cell that will not be used.

Reeves says that there is no difference in speed between a PS3 operating with 7 cells and one using 8 and while he maintains that it is unlikely that there will be any performance differences, only time will tell if there is actually any difference in overall performance. The miles of minutiae, complications and skepticism surrounding Sony’s path to a successful PS3 release are a stirring testament to the difficulties they are facing and I feel, firm validation of the PS3’s price point.

Via DailyTech

CellAs we have all undoubtedly heard, the Cell Processor, made by Toshiba, Sony and IBM, was designed to be one of the most potent processing systems available to the public today. Unfortunately, life in the real world is revealing that the complex design of the Cell Processor may be too complex to allow for the efficient operation of its entire complement of 8 cells per core.

IBM admits that it accepts chips that have only four out of 8 cells working, blaming the discrepancy on the size and complexity of the chips design. According to IBM VP of Semiconductor and Technology Services Tom Reeves, “with a chip like the Cell Processor you’re lucky to get 10 to 20%” (working). Reeves goes on to say that, “the PS3 requires 7 of the 8 processors to be working,” and that, “Sony will be using Cell Processors whether they have all cores functioning or not.”

Obviously, at this point Sony is hitched to the fate of the Cell Processor no matter what happens. After Sony’s substantial investment of time, money and resources into the processor, changing strategy now would move the project further down the road of disaster. All of this talk about the Cell Processor having various levels of functionality leads to obvious questions about quality control. What if I get one that only has 10% of its capacity functional will I notice a difference?

Should I have to pay the same amount of money for a lesser machine? Another potential pitfall for the processor is the fact that if one cell does happen to “blow out” (cease to function) prematurely, the machine must be sent in for an under warranty repair. If your machine is no longer under warranty then you are apparently out of luck. For those of you out there who have been reading all of this on the verge of tears, about to lose faith in the PS3 take heart!

As far as “blow outs” are concerned, Reeves claims that any problematic cells will be removed during the testing process and it is unlikely that a bad one would make it past QA and into public circulation. Sony apparently will be producing PS3’s with different Cell Processors, but remember, the PS3 only needs 7 cells working to function, so essentially those with 8 working processors will simply have an unnecessary or spare cell that will not be used.

Reeves says that there is no difference in speed between a PS3 operating with 7 cells and one using 8 and while he maintains that it is unlikely that there will be any performance differences, only time will tell if there is actually any difference in overall performance. The miles of minutiae, complications and skepticism surrounding Sony’s path to a successful PS3 release are a stirring testament to the difficulties they are facing and I feel, firm validation of the PS3’s price point.

Via DailyTech

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