http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20380Playstation chip starts at 90 nanometre
To shift to 65 and built in Sony fabs
By Fuad Abazovic in the Bosnian wilds: Friday 24 December 2004, 15:11
AS WE REVEALED before, Sony Playstation 3 is due to arrive in Spring 2006 in Japan and Autumn 2006 in the US and the rest of the word.
The initial Nvidia chip is likely to be built on 90 nanometre marchitecture. This is not such a surprise as ATI's R520 will be a 90 nanometre chip and it's scheduled for spring 2005. The R520 is 90 nanometre but even if R500 turns to be a 110 nanometre chip it will get shrunk to at least 90 nanometrea. We are in the dark about R500 chip so we are not sure here.
Nvidia will be licensing GPU technology for Sony. Sony will dictate what it wants as Sony is the boss here. Nvidia has to customise its marchitecture for Sony requirements - you have to listen to your boss. At least this is what our business analyst source claims.
The initial implementation of Playstation 3 chip build by Nvidia is expected on 90 nanometre marchitecture. Our sources suggest that it could mean that this chip is likely to be a discrete GPU. Initial chips are expected for first batch of Playstation 3 consoles.
Nvidia won't stop there as it plans to shrink the chip to 65 nanometre. The shocking news is that Sony might build 65 nanometre chips in its own fabs. Our sources suggest that 65 nanometre chip would be developed as a primarily GPU core based chipset. Imagine the strength of that integrated graphic chipset. It is cheaper to make all on one chip as least for Sony. Nvidia is selling the wisdom, not chips in this case.
There is more shocking news that might happen later in the Playstation 3's life.Sometime in 2007. Nvidia might manage to shrink down the core to use a 45 nanometre manufacturing process. Imagine this chip would be twice as small as the original and initial Playstation 3 core. Sources suggested that it would be a pure embedded core, but we are not sure how exactly to interpret this statement.
Overall, it sounds like a very nice chip and analysts are sure that Nvidia will make some money on it as the share forecast changed from hold to buy.
Nvidia is on a good road it seems. It lost MS and its Xbox deal but it got an even bigger player. We all know Sony Playstation don’t we? It's a huge chunk of gaming business and Nvidia knows it's a much bigger chunk than MS Xbox business. µ
Ps3 Gpu To Br 65 Nano
Dec 24 2004, 05:10 PM
