worst game system

[mpeck]

i just cant wait till the PS3 comes out......will clear the market of all other systems...

The core of the PlayStation 2 will be new CPU technology. The project is a joint effort by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. They have been working on the project since 2001, but so far very little facts about its functionality has been released. Sony expects to use the chip inside HDTV's and computers as well.[indent]In a joint statement the three firms gave hints about how the chip will work but fuller details will be released in February next year at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.



The three firms claim that the Cell chip will be up to 10 times more powerful than existing processors.

When put inside powerful computer servers, the Cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations, or calculations, every second.

The chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media.

more info on the infamous "Cell" chip

Sony and IBM are expected to start producing the Cell, a 4GHz chip the two companies have been working together on for the past three years.

Sony said that it will use the chip for its home servers used in broadband and high-definition TV systems. The chip has a 64-bit architecture and multiple cores and is built for broadband applications - the companies have said that more details of the chip should be available by February 6, 2005.


<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>[/url]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>In April 2002, Sony Corporation, IBM, Toshiba and Sony Entertainment had signed a multi-year agreement to jointly develop advanced semi conductor technologies for high performance, low power chips. The chips were to be used for a wide range of applications - from digital consumer apps to supercomputers.

IBM and Sony had said they would invest around $400 million dollars in developing the chip for the PS3.

The name 'cell' was derived from grid computing, a technology that promises to make the most of the distributed computing possibilities of the Internet. Sony had said the PS3 will not need to work on a DVD but rather on downloadable games from the Net.

With the chip, devices are expected to be more powerful than IBM's own Deep Blue supercomputer, which was capable of teraflops of processing power.

woohoo, more points for apple

Merrill Lynch said game consoles will likely eventually edge out PCs as the dominant home computing system. "The future of microprocessors, storage devices, and development environments could be driven by the booming videogame industry," Merrill Lynch said. The research firm added that it's premature to know which device will become the centerpiece of the digital family room of the future, saying it doubts that PCs will win because they are too complex and unstable. "It strikes us as more likely that either (1) the game console will move up market to become the leading entertainment device or (2) a new system we dub the entertainment server will be created," Merrill Lynch said. "We see a window of opportunity for Microsoft (nasdaq: [url=http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=MSFT]MSFT - news - people ) if it can introduce Xbox 2 mid-next year and have the holiday season to itself before Sony's PS3 hits the market." The research firm said Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) seems a likely candidate to build an entertainment server based on its iPod, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD and AirPort Express products. "If the PC loses out to the game console or entertainment server, there will be winners and losers," Merrill Lynch said. It listed IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Apple as potential winners, while Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ), Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) and Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ) would be possible losers. "Even if successful with Xbox, Microsoft may have more to lose given its PC dominance," Merrill Lynch said.

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