I posted a summary of Sony Computer Entertainment's product roadmap on IRR once based
on some inside information and got my head bit off for posting
non-grounded, unfounded chip hype because I couldn't reveal
my sources there.
It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to be designed
with Windows in mind. 8-)
Greg
Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> Brian: These chips would be over 500 times faster than the best Athlons
> or Pentium 4s we have now. And in only 5 years. WOW
>
> Eliezer: If this is true, a medium-sized research project should
> definitely be able to buy enough power for "true AI" by 2005-2007. Of
> course, that's hardware rather than software - but still.
>
> URL: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nf/20010312/tc/8100_1.html
>
> Monday March 12 02:09 PM EST
>
> Tech Titans To Build 'Supercomputer on a Chip'
>
> By Tim McDonald, www.NewsFactor.com
>
> IBM, Toshiba Corp. and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced an
> alliance on Monday aimed at advancing computer chip technology that will
> enable consumers to buy electronic devices that will be more powerful than
> IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer within five years.
>
> The companies said they will commit US$400 million to develop a
> "supercomputer on a chip" -- processors that will operate at low power and
> that will be able to access the Internet via broadband at ultra-high
> speeds. "The processor platform that people have only been able to
> imagine is now going to become a reality," said Ken Kutaragi, president
> and chief executive officer of Sony CEI.
>
> Code-named 'Cell'
>
> Officials for all three companies said at the announcement in Tokyo that
> the new microchips, code-named "Cell," will use the world's most advanced
> research technologies and chip-making techniques.
>
> As for what types of electronic devices will use the chips and be
> available for widespread use by consumers, plans are still uncertain,
> Sony's Chris Andrews told NewsFactor Network. "It really remains to be
> seen exactly where [the chips will be used], but it will be computing
> devices that consumers will use to connect to and interact with the
> Internet," Andrews said. "They will essentially be more powerful than
> some of the most advanced supercomputer chips," Andrews told NewsFactor,
> "but will find their way into more consumer applications, in addition to
> servers and high-end applications."
>
> IBM To License Technology
>
> The project will employ 300 chip designers and computer architects at its
> peak, all working toward the goal of developing a "teraflop-class"
> consumer processor. A teraflop is one trillion floating point operations
> per second. Under the agreement, IBM will license to Sony its 0.10 micron
> processing technology, which reduces the size of circuit features and
> enables smaller chips to run at faster speeds. The fastest current
> microchips are produced at 0.11 microns or 0.13 microns. Production on a
> commercial scale at a sub-0.10 micron level -- 10,000 times thinner than a
> human hair -- has not yet been achieved.
>
> Officials for Sony, the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker,
> said the technology will allow the company to build more advanced
> production lines in Japan for the microprocessors used in its line of
> PlayStation game consoles. Sony was plagued last year with shortages of
> the new PlayStation2, particularly in the U.S. where demand was great.
>
> New Wave of Devices
>
> The three high-tech companies, which will share a development center to be
> housed within an IBM facility in Austin, Texas, said the agreement calls
> for all three firms to manufacture the product for "a new wave of
> devices." With built-in broadband connectivity, ultra-high speed networks
> will be expanded and become more closely linked, in effect forming one
> unified "super-system," the companies claimed.
>
> "Just as biological cells in the body unite to form complete physical
> systems, 'Cell-based' electronic products of all types will form the
> building blocks of larger systems," Kutaragi said. IBM also announced on
> Monday that it is joining the efforts of a computer chip industry group
> studying ways of coming up with smaller circuit patterns on semiconductors
> for the purpose of boosting their speed.
>
> The consortium is experimenting with extreme ultra-violet light as a means
> of printing the increasingly complex circuits on next-generation
> processors.
> --
> Brian Atkins
> Director, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
> http://www.singinst.org/
-- Gregory Alan Bolcer | gbolcer@endtech.com | work: 949.833.2800 Chief Technology Officer | http://www.endtech.com | cell: 714.928.5476 Endeavors Technology, Inc. | efax: 603.994.0516 | wap: 949.278.2805
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