Eight-processor Cell core runs at 4-GHz, say developers

LONDON — A prototype of the long-awaited Cell processor from IBM Corp., Sony Corp., Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Toshiba Corp., has been operated at clock frequencies greater than 4-GHz according to a statement from the companies. The statement was issued to coincide with a presentation from a team of engineers presenting a paper on the processor at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California.

With eight synergistic processors and a top clock speed of greater than 4-GHz, as measured during initial hardware testing, the Cell processor is capable of achieving ten times the performance of the most recent PC processors, the companies said.

The Cell processor is widely seen as an attempt to break the Microsoft- Intel dominance of computing architectures, and to prevent it from extending into consumer electronics.

The Cell processor has been designed to running multiple operating systems at the same time. Such operating systems include conventional ones, such as Linux as well as real-time operating systems for computer entertainment and consumer electronics applications as well as guest operating systems for specific applications.

The prototype chip occupies 221 square millimeters, integrates 234 million transistors, and is made in a 90-nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) manufacturing technology, the companies said.

The chip has been in development by a team of IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba engineers at a joint design center established in Austin, Texas, since Mar. 2001 and the companies said they would expect to promote Cell-based products for a broad range of applications from digital televisions to supercomputers. One of the first expected applications of the Cell processor is expected to be the PlayStation 3 from Sony.

Initial production of Cell microprocessors is expected to begin at IBM's 300-mm wafer fabrication facility in East Fishkill, New York, followed by Sony Group's Nagasaki Fab, sometime in 2005, the companies said.

"Today's disclosure of the Cell chip's breakthrough architectural design is a significant milestone in an ambitious project that began four years ago with the creation of the IBM, Sony and Toshiba design lab in Austin, Texas," said William Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Systems and Technology Group, in a statement.

"We are proud that Cell, a revolutionary microprocessor with a brand new architecture that leapfrogs the performance of existing processors, has been created through a perfect synergy of IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba's capabilities and talented resources," said Masashi Muromachi, president and chief executive officer of Toshiba's semiconductor subsidiary, in the same statement. "We are confident that Cell will provide major momentum for the progress of digital convergence, as a core device sustaining a whole spectrum of advanced information-rich broadband applications, from consumer electronics, home entertainment through various industrial systems."