The Cell processor is the heart of Sony’s next genaration video game console PlayStation 3 and an architecture that is very different from today’s PC processors. Cell is expected to be a very efficient processor for multimedia content, but now it seems that Sony and IBM has aimed a bit too high during the development of the circuit. According to rumors the manufacturing of Cell is going far fram well and the yields for the processor are close to catastrophical. Simply very few of the manufactured circuits actually work, something that is both expensive and cause problems with the supply. Whether Sony and IBM will succeed in improving the manufacturing process before the coming launch of PS3 is what we’re wondering and even if they would be able to do so we’re starting to feel that there will only be a limiited number of units available.
”The problem is that IBM and Sony designed the chip for some very aggressive process technologies that did not materialise in the way the fab boys were expecting. Because of this, we are told Sony is scrambling to get yields up before it has to make them for real, a fast approaching deadline.”
This information is, of course, unconfirmed so we shouldn’t perhaps conclude too much from this, but at the same time we’ve seen very few genuine PS3-Live demos.
Source: The Inquirer
