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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Sony's 'Cell'-based TV Ready By 2006 236

Posted by simoniker from the cells-multiplying-rapidly dept.
News for nerds writes "Sony Corp plans to offer a broadband television by 2006 that would incorporate the powerful new 'Cell' processor it is developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp. The Cell processor is expected to power the upcoming PS3 console, a workstation, server, and other home appliances to form Cell-based P2P network. The sample production of the processor has already started. In PlayStation 3, TV props you!"
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Sony's 'Cell'-based TV Ready By 2006 More

Sony's 'Cell'-based TV Ready By 2006

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  • 2006? (Score:5, Funny)

    by nbensa ( 730579 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:02AM (#9244429)
    Yeah... But will it run Longhorn?

  • "In PlayStation 3, TV props you!" (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:04AM (#9244445)
    Worst... "In Soviet Russia" joke... ever.

  • I mock the Cell Processor (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tjstork ( 137384 ) <todd DOT bandrowsky AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:06AM (#9244458) Homepage Journal

    The western world shudders every time Sony rumbles with the threat of another microprocessor. The Sony Processor is some magical beast that will topple Intel. Vague references to Detroit in 1974 abound, or, the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, for the more obtuse.

    But yet I wonder if Intel will really be toppled? Will there be a magic Sony box to shake Wintel's growing foothold into Sony's traditional spaces? I don't think so.

    • Re:I mock the Cell Processor (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Trejkaz ( 615352 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:08AM (#9244466) Homepage
      Who cares what processor they use... the problem with Sony is that they then go and write an API which is impossible to use. A good API on a crap processor would still be acceptable, but knowing Sony...

      • Re:I mock the Cell Processor (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        That's why there are no games for the 75 million PS2s out there...

        Right Einstein?

        • It dosen't really matter how bad the API is. Sales are driven by consumer demand. Little bobby wants a PS3 for xmas, therefore developers will develop so all the little bobbies out there can bug their parents to get them Fragment Chamber III ULTRA.
        • Well, the reason there are so many games for the PS2 is that good third party tools have been developed for it. Your favorite game's best features owe their quality to Metrowerks, not Sony.
          • No.

            I'm sure the years of effort Kojima and Co have put into metal gear have nothing to do with the IDE or API they used, but rather Kojima smoking 5 pounds of crack a night and putting out games like Metal Gear SOlid 2 and Guitar Freaks.

        • Re:I mock the Cell Processor (Score:5, Interesting)

          by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:40AM (#9244593) Homepage Journal
          "That's why there are no games for the 75 million PS2s out there..."

          That had more to do with Sony's previous success than the friendliness of the API. Don't believe me? Then how come most of the 1st and 2nd generation games looked so horrid?

      • Re:I mock the Cell Processor (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        the problem with Sony is that they then go and write an API which is impossible to use

        Bah. The PS2 doesn't have a "Graphics API" in the sense of OpenGL or DirectX (though a version of OpenGL is available for ps2linux.) It makes things more difficult, of course, but some of us like the extra challenge-- It's like the old school; here are your memory-mapped registers; poke away, buddy. Sheer fun. And it certainly hasn't hurt their market share.
    • Wintel doesn't seem to be encroaching into Sony's traditional spaces very well, although IBM seems to be, at least in terms of game consoles.

      XBox 2 will have a PPC based CPU, albiet possibly custom designed. I think the next Nintendo will be PPC based. Sony, Toshiba and IBM seem to be cooperating on Cell. No Intel here.

      Intel is making the XScale CPUs for PDAs, but I don't think they are the #1 player in that market, I'm not sure if Cell can be expected for that market either though.

      I don't know what o
    • "The western world shudders every time Sony rumbles with the threat of another microprocessor. The Sony Processor is some magical beast that will topple Intel."

      Are you talking about Slashdot, or Wired Magazine 'shuddering' every time Sony threatens a new processor?

  • Ka Me Ha Me HA! (Score:5, Funny)

    by DrunkenTerror ( 561616 ) * on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:20AM (#9244513) Homepage Journal
    Gohan can handle Cell again. I'm not worried about this at all.

  • Sony rant (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jared_hanson ( 514797 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:22AM (#9244523) Homepage Journal
    I want to like Sony, I really do. But, they consistently fuck up the things they say they are going to do. Here's my armchair analysis:

    Sony could be a dominant technology and media company. They own record labels, movie studios, and make what could otherwise be decent computers and electronics equipment. They could tie all this stuff together in an incredibly elegant package. I'm thinking something along the lines of Apple times 10. But, they insist on using proprietary hardware and software.

    Note to Sony bigwigs: First off, ditch the memory stick. Give me SD slots on all your devices. They are smaller (physically) and cheaper (monetarily). Second, quit insisting on using your shitty ATRAC3 audio format. Or, alternatively, you can use it but make your hardware support MP3 as well. AAC would be nice, but I'm not asking a lot. I have a ton of MP3 files and I will not reencode to ATRAC3. So, that means I will not buy your damn music devices. Time and time again your formats fail. Betamax, Memory Stick, MiniDisc, SACD, ATRAC3, and on and on and on. Give it up. I want to buy your devices but you insist on making non standard stuff.

    Now, the Cell processor is interesting. I sense Sony wants to change, but they refuse to go all out. Open up this Cell processor so a bunch of home devices use it and let the network effect rake in the money. The Playstation division of Sony has a really good vision if only they could make the rest of the company follow. Cell I'm willing to accept, because it sounds interesting. Jury is still out. UMD also seems like a decent mobile solution for games/audio/video. I'm disapointed that it uses Memory Stick, however. As an mobile media player, the thing will have a chastity belt tighter than the pope's daughter, which pisses me off because I don't want to go through that much trouble to USE THE FUCKING MEDIA I OWN.

    The above was pretty incoherant I'm sure. I just see so much potential locked up in Sony that never gets realized and it really irks me.

    That is all.

    • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Synesthesiatic ( 679680 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:39AM (#9244588) Homepage
      Sony could be a dominant technology and media company. They own record labels, movie studios, and make what could otherwise be decent computers and electronics equipment. They could tie all this stuff together in an incredibly elegant package. I'm thinking something along the lines of Apple times 10. But, they insist on using proprietary hardware and software.

      Not sure if you've seen this before, but check out The Civil War Inside Sony [wired.com]. It's a fascinating look at how the interests of Sony the electronics company are in conflict with those of Sony the media giant.

      In essence, the electronics division knows they're losing ground because of their emphasis on DRM and proprietary solutions, but their hands are tied.

      • That article is so slanted it's not even funny.
        Comparing Sony's DRM to Apples free, open use?
        Whatever, they're both just as inbred and if Sony is setting their sights on the model that Apple is currently following, well, nothings going to get better fast.

        And the crap about how hard-drives are the key to it all? Know why I REFUSE to buy a portable digital media player with a hard-drive? Because I'm not paying that kind of money for a piece of hardware that can be destroyed so easily.

        Consumers just don't ge

    • Re:Sony rant (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Tezkah ( 771144 )
      They could be Apple x 10, if they didn't use proprietary hardware?

      I'm thinking something along the lines of Apple times 10. But, they insist on using proprietary hardware and software.

      =]

      Also, most Sony CD players support MP3 as well as Atrac3. Minidiscs dont, however.

      Not really adding anything, just pointing out a few things, I agree with you, honest!

      • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Informative)

        by jared_hanson ( 514797 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:48AM (#9244621) Homepage Journal
        They could be Apple x 10, if they didn't use proprietary hardware?

        I knew my comment would draw this sort of reaction. It's horribly out of date. First off, I own a G5 and a PowerBook, so call me biased if you want to. But, lets take a look at what can be found on them:

        FireWire 400/800 - Standard. Used in computers and new set-top boxes
        USB 2.0 - Standard.
        Ethernet - Standard. Gigabit too, no less.
        802.11g - Standard.
        SATA Hard Drives - Standard.
        AGP - Standard
        PCI - Standard
        DVI - Standard. You might pick a bone with ADC, but that thing is cool. Power, USB and DVI in one cable saves tons of wiring mess.

        So, I suspect your argument comes down to their use of the Power processor. It's a huge misconception that this is proprietary. Sure, Apple is the only PC manufacturer to use them, but PPC chips are found in all kinds of embedded devices. PPC gets used, and it gets used a lot. IBM and Freescale (ie Motorola) make them and it wouldn't surprise me if other smaller companies did too.

        That said, I also prefer PPC processors to x86 ones. The design is much more sensible and also gives much better performance to power used ratio. I'm sorry, but I don't want the latest AMD or Intel monstrosity sucking juice from my outlet like it was a keg at a frat party.

        In short. Apple uses very little proprietary stuff these days. Yes, there are exceptions. However, what they do usually is done in the sake of ease of use for the consumer, wheras Sony does it to treat you like a criminal who is out to steal and cheat them.

        • Re:Sony rant (Score:3, Interesting)

          by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 )
          "That said, I also prefer PPC processors to x86 ones. The design is much more sensible and also gives much better performance to power used ratio. I'm sorry, but I don't want the latest AMD or Intel monstrosity sucking juice from my outlet like it was a keg at a frat party."

          Right. Because the new 6W AMD Geode x86 CPU (esentially an Athlon XP 1500+) isn't low power at all.

          Oh, and the 21W Dothan isn't low power either. Neither is the 10W low-voltage unit.

          Oh, and the 35W Opteron EE really sucks down the cur

          • Oh, and it's about $400 on eBay. Try getting an Apple system with an XGA screen for that price.

            And once it's reached the end of its practical life for you, try selling it on eBay again. What's that? It's not worth shit now? Shame.

            Sounds like someone's bitter at how Apple laptops hold their value to me, there's a reason for that you know ;-)

            Hope you enjoy using Windows or Linux on that. I wonder if the modem works in Linux? I wonder if having a wireless card sticking out of the side will get on your nerv

            • Sounds like someone's bitter at how Apple laptops hold their value to me, there's a reason for that you know ;-)

              I had always heard this but when I tried to sell my 6 month old 12" aluminum powerbook ($2600cdn new), I was surprised to find out I'd be lucky to get more than $1500 for it.
          • Anyway, if you want a cool, quiet, long-running notebook, try the Compaq Armada M300. 3.1lbs (with battery), 600MHz Pentium III (with SpeedStep), 3 hour battery life, built-in Intel Pro/100 ethernet and modem, USB, a cardbus slot for wifi, nice XGA screen, decent keyboard, magnesium case.
            Oh, and it's about $400 on eBay. Try getting an Apple system with an XGA screen for that price.

            No thanks, I'd rather spend $250* more and have a 750MHz iBook with a 5 hour battery life**, built-in 10/100 ethernet and mode
          • 3 hour battery life
            <Nelson>Ha ha!</Nelson>

    • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dasmegabyte ( 267018 ) <das@OHNOWHATSTHISdasmegabyte.org> on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:47AM (#9244617) Homepage Journal
      Alright. Cute rant, but remember this: the reason Sony gear is such high quality is because they put a lot of money into research, design, and development. To recoup said monies, they have chosen to make their modestly priced devices compatible only with their own modestly priced accessories. The reason they can price so modestly is that they know they've got that tie in. A Cybershot would probably be another $50 or more if it used SD...and you'd probably look to Fuji or Canon.

      In this, Sony's a lot like Apple. They spend time designing things, rather than just doing what everybody else does, and in turn their prices are a bit higher. And in designing them, they look to make really dramatic choices. Like using a single removable media for EVERY device, from camcorders to MP3 players to (I think) the PlayStation itself. Bash Memory Stick all you like, but when it first showed up it was faster than Compactflash and more durable than Smartmedia. Nowadays, you can't buy a Sony device that doesn't have a Memory Stick port in it somewhere, which is pretty cool. In the same time, competing camera and media companies have created no less than 4 different media types, including MMC/Secure Digital and xD. Sony's dogged devotion to Memory Stick has made things easy for customers and made them a pretty penny...there's NO reason for them to switch formats. Do you think that they care about using a standard medium? If they did that, nobody would buy it from them! They have the clout to create a defacto standard, and they're gonna do it.

      Personally, I agree with you on Atrac3, but since some of my favorite artists are on Sony or Arista, I'm hoping instead that Apple adds Atrac3 support to the iPod. Because Sony is NOT going to change their mind -- nor should they, because as you list their failures, I could make an equally large list of successes. Things like the Trinitron tube, the Walkman, the compact disc, and the goddamn Playstation.

      • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jared_hanson ( 514797 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @01:04AM (#9244678) Homepage Journal
        You make some good points. However, I still disagree in many respects. First off is this "high quality" Sony stuff you refer to. I once bought into this argument and had it backfire big time. 5-6 years ago I bought a VAIO laptop that cost me a pretty penny. 1 month out of the year long warranty it took a shit bigger than its intestines and died forever.

        I've had DVD players from them quit reading discs in the middle of playback and never read them again. Its very easy to find others with similar experience. Sony hardware consistently fails quicker than that from Pioneer, Philips, Toshiba, etc.

        They have the clout to create a defacto standard, and they're gonna do it.

        A defacto standard is one that everyone uses. If Sony put any effort into getting others to adopt their formats, I would lay my argument to rest. As it is, only Sony uses Sony formats, so it is not a standard. Any brain dead fuck can build stuff and use it without regard for anyone else. As it stands, myself and many other people I know won't buy Sony equipment because it locks them into more expensive and restrictive choices. I want choice. If I buy a CLIE, I need a Sony camera to use my flash memory. I might buy both devices if they used more standard memory, but as it is I won't buy either because what if I want a non-Sony SD device down the line.

        The sucessess you list all point to instances where Sony adopted an open format. With Trinitron, that is just a TV tube technology meant to display images. You don't need "Trinitron-compatible" cable from your company to use a TV tube. The Walkman used casettes and later CDs, open standards. I don't see many MiniDisc NetWalkmans around. Those aren't standard. Compact disc, developed with Philips I believe and opened as a standard.

        The Playstation is good, granted. The game console market is remarkable different than the general consumer electronics market however. It's much more accepting of single-vendor solutions.
        • You don't need "Trinitron-compatible" cable from your company to use a TV tube.

          No, but you can't market a TV as a Trinitron(TM) without licensing the patented technology from Sony. So you pay for it no matter.

          BTW, does anyone other than Sony make a Trinitron(TM) TV?

        • Its very easy to find others with similar experience

          I'm sure it's very easy to find others with different experiences too. My VAIO has been no trouble and it's taken a reasonable amount of beating. The Sony VCR I have is the best I've ever owned. It's been no trouble and has an interface for setting up a recording that is genius in it's simplicity.

          I also have a Sony camera and a Memory Stick Network walkman. Both are fine but (even with a Memory Stick equipped laptop) don't really have any significantly c

          • I just can't wait for the PSP to come out, so prices for decent sized Memory Stick Duo cards come down out of the sky somewhat. I knew the 512Mb one was going to be expensive when I saw that it was a Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro. "Pro" is like a multiplier on Sony kit. /frustrated P800 owner

        • You make some good points. However, I still disagree in many respects. First off is this "high quality" Sony stuff you refer to. I once bought into this argument and had it backfire big time. 5-6 years ago I bought a VAIO laptop that cost me a pretty penny. 1 month out of the year long warranty it took a shit bigger than its intestines and died forever.

          I did the same thing and thought buying Sony meant getting a product where quality mattered. Not with my Sony 15SF it didn't. Colour divergence between

          • It's exactly the same mistake they're making with the MiniDisc

            Shouldn't this be past tense?

            I thought MiniDisc died 5 years ago. I haven't seen a player or the discs since like 1995.
            • They're still alive. The new Hi-MDs are able to store 1GB of normal data files with the USB Mass Storage standards, alongside the music, and they're looking pretty handy. The prices aren't too bad either - Dabs in the UK is pricing the entry level Hi-MD recorders at 160UKP inc VAT.

              If the Hi-MDs themselves aren't too expensive, one slinky box for your music and your pr0n... neat.

              • Wow thats awesome. I could put my MP3's and OGG files on that... oh no I can't? Suck it Sony!
                • Well, yeah you can put all your MP3s and OGGs on it. You just can't play them off the disk with firmware installed in the factory. Yet. The trick is finding someone talented enough to replace or patch out the ATRAC codecs in firmware (and thank God for the 95% of humanity that can't get prosecuted under the DMCA) and stream from the files in the FAT partition rather than whatever special magic partition Sony create.

                  The point is that there's now a mass-market removable re-writable media format that can be

      • Re:Sony rant (Score:3, Interesting)

        by randyest ( 589159 )
        Because Sony is NOT going to change their mind -- nor should they, because as you list their failures, I could make an equally large list of successes. Things like the Trinitron tube, the Walkman, the compact disc . . .

        I'm with ya until the bold part. Sony didn't invent the CD, James Russell [about.com] did, and it was popularized by Philips [philips.com].

        Otherwise, your good points are well made.

      • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SJ ( 13711 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @01:41AM (#9244807)
        Alright. Cute rant, but remember this: the reason Apple gear is such high quality is because they put a lot of money into research, design, and development. To recoup said monies, they have chosen to make their modestly priced devices compatible with a lot of other modestly priced accessories. The reason they can price so modestly is that they know they've got a good product. An iPod would probably be another $50 or more if it used Atrac3...and you probably and you'd probably look to Sony or Creative.

        In this, Apple's a lot like Sony. They spend time designing things, rather than just doing what everybody else does, and in turn their prices are a bit higher. And in designing them, they look to make really dramatic choices. Like using a standard audio format media for EVERY device, from computers to MP3 players. Bash AAC all you like, but when it first showed up it was better than MP3 and more available than WMP. Nowadays, you can't buy a Apple device that doesn't have a AAC playback in it somewhere, which is pretty cool. In the same time, competing computer and media companies have created no less than 4 different audio types, including MP3Pro and WMP. Apple's dogged devotion to AAC has made things easy for customers and made them a pretty penny...there's NO reason for them to switch formats.

        Personally, I agree with you on Atrac3, but since some of my favorite artists are on Sony or Arista, I'm hoping instead that Sony adds AAC support to the audio players. Because Apple is NOT going to change their mind -- nor should they, because as you list their failures, I could make an equally large list of successes. Things like the iMac, the QuickTime, the PowerMac G5, and the goddamn iPod.

        • Alright. Cute rant, but remember this: the reason Sony gear is such high quality is because they put a lot of money into research, design, and development. To recoup said monies, they have chosen to make their modestly priced devices compatible only with their own modestly priced accessories. The reason they can price so modestly is that they know they've got that tie in. A Cybershot would probably be another $50 or more if it used SD...and you'd probably look to Fuji or Canon.

          In this, Sony's a lot like A

          • Hail Bagels - Prince of the Obvious!

            I can see your a smart one!
          • Shall I hit you over the head with this clue-stick?
            Or have you got it figured out by now?

            If you'd posted AC I'd assume you were trolling, but I'm fairly certain you're being sincere.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • And don't even THINK of dropping it.

            To this day I still use a sony sport walkman, damned near indestructable things, been ground into the pavement under full body weight dozens of times and still keeps on going...for $90 dollars or so that I paid for it how many years ago now, I just can't even fathom spending $600 (CDN) on a device that is pretty much entirely disposable.

            Now don't get me wrong, I am yet to see a disc player of any sort or a digital player of any sort made by anybody that isn't built like

    • Betamax, yeah... but! (Score:3, Informative)

      by solios ( 53048 )
      Betacam SP is another story entirely.

      It's the television video editing standard. Everyone uses it. Why? It's quality shit. ESPN, the six o'clock news, Jeapordy... all of gets transferred on Betacam SP tapes.

      Good stuff.

      Sony OCCASIONALLY gets it right. :)

    • Re:Sony rant (Score:5, Insightful)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @01:40AM (#9244803) Journal
      Time and time again your formats fail. Betamax, Memory Stick, MiniDisc, SACD, ATRAC3, and on and on and on. Give it up.

      Betamax had quite a successful life in professional use, that only just recently ended.

      Memory Sticks aren't exactly dominating the world, but so what? They have a chunk of the market, and are making money. SD isn't taking over the world either... I am, and I'm sure many others are, a CompactFlash hold-out. I don't know why people insist on insignificantly smaller, significantly more expensive, and less compatible SD, but I'm certainly not willing to go along with it.

      MiniDiscs aren't a failure by any measure. They haven't replaced CDs, but nothing else has either. They've sold quite well, continue to do so, and replaced DAT almost completely.

      SACD can hardly be called a failure. It's just barely gotten started. You could just as well have called CDs a failure a few years after they were introduced. It's not as if DVD-Audio (or any other technology) has been selected to replace CDs, rather than SACD.

      ATRAC3 is FAR more successful than many other common audio codecs.

      Besides this, you should consider that they can't always win them all... LaserDisc was an open format, yet it didn't replace the VCR. HDTV is an open format, yet it hasn't replaced NTSC TVs. I could go on like this...

      • MiniDiscs aren't a failure by any measure. They haven't replaced CDs, but nothing else has either. They've sold quite well, continue to do so, and replaced DAT almost completely.

        DAT was taxed out of the market. Corporate lobbyists got the US Congress to pass the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, taxing both the DATs and DAT equipment.

        As for MiniDiscs being successful, I remember thinking they'd be the replacements for 1.44Mb floppies. Zip drives were about and becoming more common but Sony's marketing

        • The Sony Hi-MDs can only store 1GB (that would be plenty for home user data starage requirements for at least a decade), not 4.5Gb. Too much beef make brain spongey but bouncey.

          I also found that they do conform to the USB Mass Storage standard, so when the other manufacturers start making their models (not a big fan of Sony hardware QC) I might just get me one of these. It makes me unreasonably happy when I find out that someone out there wasn't as stupid and myopic as they could have been.

        • As for MiniDiscs being successful, I remember thinking they'd be the replacements for 1.44Mb floppies.

          Just because you thought they would take over that position, doesn't mean that was ever intended by Sony.

          It's not as if there weren't other contenders as well. Zip disks, Super Disks (120MB floppy-sized disks). It just seems that CD Recordables/Rewritable won-out, despite them not being natively read/writable.

      • Memory sticks, ATRAC mini disk, SACD - they're all FORMAT SOLUTIONS LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM. proprietary ones at that - we DON'T NEED THEM.
        • No, they're all format solutions that solve particular problems. You've made it clear you don't like them because Sony isn't making the specs freely available to anyone that wants them, but that certainly doesn't mean they have been a failure.

          Shall we say Saturn cars are a failure because there were already lots of car manufacturers?
    • Sony has done veyr well for itself despite or because of the reasons you mentioned. Unlike a lot of other companies you know they will support their own hardware. even if it never becomes standard. in fact they sold beta tapes of sony pitures movies up until recently. Thus they ensure a healthy margine on their niche products instead of razor thin margins on commodity hardware. IF they can make money going propriatary why stop? Wouldn't you rather be Apple compters rather then compaq? Nice thick margins in
    • People here seem to forget that Sony has had a major hand in two of the most-used formats around, the first being the 3.5" floppy disk, the other being the CD-ROM which they worked on with Phillips.

      Indeed, the DVD is a combination between Matsushita/Toshiba/Time-Warner's SuperDisk and Sony/Philips's Multimedia CD.

      As far as SD goes, it's also a proprietary standard created by Matushita/Toshiba/Sandisk, which also incur licensing fees. Today, MemorySticks are already used and made by Samsung/Phillips/Lexar

  • Where's the beef? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Synesthesiatic ( 679680 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:22AM (#9244526) Homepage
    n an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Sony Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei said it would use Cell to power its next-generation game console as well as a network television that will offer functions similar to a personal computer.

    What personal computer functions, other than gaming, and perhaps IM, would function well in a living room environment? Remember when Gateway tried to pull something like this way back, with the 32" computer monitor with TV tuner for the living room? Remember WebTV?

    Computers and TVs serve different functions, and I fail to see what possible advantages throwing a "high powered" processor in the TV could provide, unless it's essentially going to be a built-in PS3 with PVR capabilities. Classic computing functions like web surfing and word processing are ill-suited for the big screen.

    • That's not what Microsoft thinks. Have you seen the new ads for their set top box + keyboard that adds dial-up net access to your existing tv?
    • it's not about being able to surf on your tv, it's about being able to have all your shit in one place.

      That said, if it says Sony on the front you can be sure it's an overpriced pos. I don't game and can't comment on the virtues of the playstation, but I do know every Sony appliance I ever bought died an early death. My $179 6 head Sharp VCR lasted years and kicked ass. It was such a great machine I actually lamented its death. Meanwhile, my $229 Sony four head had a terrible fucking picture with anything

    • Classic computing functions like web surfing and word processing are ill-suited for the big screen.

      Those two are, but really only because TVs are so very low-res. High-def TVs in Japan should be able to handle text quite well. Add in a compact cordless keyboard with trackball, and there is little reason your TV can't double as your computer monitor.

      But besides that, those "classic" functions are the extremes. I have a computer mainly acting as a PVR, and it handles practically all multimedia. I edit v

    • Try this one:

      1) Sony sells Cells.
      2) Sony builds the biggest distributed computing network ever.
      3) Sony gives you free access to their gaming network if you make unused cycle available for their use.
      4) Profit! Sony profits selling untold computing power to the highest bidder whilst making millions of gamers happy that they have no subscription fees to pay.

      6) (optional) Masses flee xBox Live (which I'll admit, is pretty cool).
      • 4) Profit! Sony profits selling untold computing power to the highest bidder whilst making millions of gamers happy that they have no subscription fees to pay.

        This assumes that you can actually make a profit selling massively parallel computing horsepower, something which has yet to be demonstrated.

        There's a lot of applications for computing power along these lines, I grant you. However, I'm not sure that there's enough market (aka people willing to pay for this power) to reach or exceed a break even poi
    • One nice function would be playing divx from my network.
      But since sony seems to have something against standards they'll probably won't be able to access smb or nfs-shares or be able to decode anything else than some obscure sony-proprietary video-standard and maybe atrac3 music.... =/
    • The 'cell' is not an individual chip, but a technology to create specialized chips quickly and cheaply using off the shelf designs. Essentially its a form of grid computing where different components are placed on the same chip die. In this case, they will put a chip in the TV that has sub-cores specialized in signal handling and possibly decryption on a chip that has a general purpose core that will act as a traffic-cop routing data to the correct subcommponents. In the PS3, the cell chips will have sub

    • unless it's essentially going to be a built-in PS3 with PVR capabilities

      Well, sounds like enough to me. Plus e-mail is usually OK on a TV, I don't care what anyone says about text being unreadable, if that were the case, there'd be no such thing as RPG's. Text is unreadable at small sizes on current TVs. These will be HDTVs.

      When I was going to buy my DVD player, I looked at the PS2 as being only $100 more than a DVD player (at the time) and that I also wanted to get another PS1. So it was the same p

  • "Next generation game console"/"network TV"/"home file server"/"other home electronics"/another thing I'm going to spend a ton of money on that I just want for games

    I feel as though the more you put onto one machine the more problems/frustrations people will have...keep the PS3 as a game console (maybe with a better multi-player network) and let us choose if we want to buy everything else this wonder cell has to offer

  • EE (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SnprBoB86 ( 576143 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:40AM (#9244594) Homepage
    Wasn't the PS2's Emotion Engine chip supposed to totally rock our world? I seem to remember the PS2 having awsome graphics only to have its ass handed to it shortly afterwards by ATI and nVidia.

    As an earlier poster said, Sony sucks at designing things with developer considerations. Apparently the PS2 is a nightmare to code for.

    What guarentee is there that this chip will really be revolutionary? And what has been done to ensure that it can be utilized?
    • it DOES rock the world, for the money involved.
    • Insightful? Well, whatever floats your boat.

      To correct some of the misconceptions, though, it's the GS that's handed its ass by ATI and nVidia, not the EE. Sony's record for designing things with developer considerations is actually pretty good - witness the original PSX, and the changes they've made to the hardware spec of the PSP to satisfy developer requirements. I'll let the 'PS2 is a nightmare to code for' comment slide, because I don't have any experience of it myself, but I know a few people who don

    • Re:EE (Score:2)

      by mbbac ( 568880 )
      The difference between the Cell and Sony's previous custom chips is that this one is based on PowerPC architecture.

  • The question on everyone's lips... (Score:3, Funny)

    by DJ-Dodger ( 169589 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:46AM (#9244614) Homepage
    Yeah...but will it accept Memory Stick??!!

  • Sony's threat (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:50AM (#9244627)
    All your appliance are belong to us!
  • 2006! Why so long?

    I want one of those Cell workstations, now.

  • Watch the Cell... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Flaming Death ( 447117 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @12:51AM (#9244637)
    The cell is going to make waves - in more areas than most people are willing to admit/understand. Sony now has such a large portion of media control they are now able to bring them all together for a single combined solution - and that means at the hardware level. If you have ever written hardware level software you will be jumping for joy. Imagine it, a nice singular interface (hardware) for ALL electronic consumer devices.. who cares about the high level software that will come.. its the low level software that will benefit inifitely.. These are the sorts of innovations that allow hardware to actually move into a new style of connectivity. And I admire Sony for:
    A - Having the balls to go into so much debt for the R&D on this - it could cost them their company.
    B - Looking past then next 2 years of development, and really looking 10+ years from now.
    C - Not following the pack, with the x86 mentality that has railroaded cpu creation into a jumbled bloody mess.
    D - Concentrating of consumer devices that not only function well, but look good. I doubt anyone here can defy Sony's good quality of products - I doubt you will find an American manufacturer who can compete there.

    I give these guys the thumbs up, for thinking different (just read the patent on the cell and you'll know what I mean) and for not boxing themselves into a copy cat company..

    Future prediction - Cell will very likely become a standard baseline for electronics manufacturing for the next 20 years.
    • How about this for future predictions, you're a fanboy who doesn't know his ass from the whole in the ground?

      I'm not even interested in the cell processor -- here's why. Here's SONY's shtick -- invent some technology that does something we can already do, polish it nicely and charge 2x as much as existing solutions while selling gear to fanboys such as yourself. Said technology integrates with other sony products, but is really an attempt create a proprietary standard that SONY can license. Admiral Akb

    • for ALL electronic consumer devices

      Not bloody likely. More like every Sony (and only Sony) device that plugs into the wall and isn't a PC, and requires massive processor power- that is to say you won't find video cameras and DVD players "Powered by CELL(TM)" (unless it integrates a PS3).

      it could cost them their company.

      Ummm...no it won't, Sony is freakin huge (they have departments that sue their other departments) and a single failed chip will not sink the company.

      looking past then next 2 years
    • I agree with most of that, except the prediction.

      Sony does lots of R&D, but they funnel it into a product that comes out in the end as slightly better in some ways than what exists on the market. They then make that technology completely proprietary because they are afraid someone apart from Sony might make money out of it.

      What invariably follows is that the rest of the world either rips off Sony, or more likely arrives at the same technology level by natural progression, and designs a cheaper and mo
      • By the same token, the prospector isn't dead. And neither is sony. As long as it works for them. I don't see them changing.
        • Ahh, but this isn't about survival, this is about "standard baseline for the industry" stuff. I'm suggesting that the great-grandparent is wrong to think that Sony can become a standard baseline, because of their business model.

          Sony tries, quite innocently I imagine, to research and proprietise a system which will be so good that the rest of the market will love them and ignore the alternatives, irrespective of competitive pricing or open standards.

          Microsoft, and I use MS here becuase I really think they

  • Question (Score:3, Interesting)

    by clu76 ( 620823 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @02:05AM (#9244870) Homepage
    Why should I care about Sony's cell processor technology? I'm not asking to troll. I really want to know what all the hullabaloo is about. What capabilities will it bring to us consumers that we could not possibly get elsewhere?

  • Cell Schmell (Score:4, Insightful)

    by justin_saunders ( 99661 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @03:44AM (#9245207) Homepage
    What-EVER.

    Goddamn I'm sick of this Cell hype. Especially the "using your toaster to help render Tekken 17 slightly faster" crap.

    The thing holding back distributed computing is NOT the freaken' CPU. Its the software. Its not that current CPU's _can't_ do distributed computing. Its NOT that no one thought to add a "DODISTRIB" instruction to current chipsets.

    Sure, Cell may do it a bit faster, but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem, which is:

    Distributed SOFTWARE is FREAKEN HARD.

    If any app could be instantly made significantly faster just by adding an extra cpu on a network, then they would *ALL* be doing it now. Whats stopping your office network into becoming a big distributed pool for all your apps? It certainly isn't the hardware.

    If Sony had come up with a software model, or a toolkit, to turn any arbitary app into a optimised distributed computation THEN I would be impressed.

    • "Distributed SOFTWARE is FREAKEN HARD."

      BS, I've written several clustered applications for geophysical data computation and bioinforamtics. There are several tutorials on designing an application to make use of distributed power, and both OSS/FSF and commercial toolkits and API's to help you accomplish the same. Designing a distributed application is not difficult at all.

      "Whats stopping your office network into becoming a big distributed pool for all your apps? It certainly isn't the hardware."

      For on
      • Getting off topic here a bit, but are the tutorials you looked at online at all? If so, where? I would be pretty interested in taking a look at them.
        • I've long since lost the URL's to the exact tutorials I used, but here's the url I used to find it :)
          http://www.google.com/search?q=creating+distri bute d+applications&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&sta rt=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
    • There is a game by Sony called Star Wars galaxies. It is one of a handfull of games out there that really benefits from a dual (or more if your filthy rich) processor.

      It ain't really so hard. It is just that on the PC the fast majority of PC's are single CPU so no-one really bothers. I recently was asked to look at upgrading an office of about 50 pc's from P3's to up. They were running windows XP pro (boss is a MS junkie of the worst kind but he also pays well). I open one of the boxes and find it is reall

  • Come on guys: do you really have to call every single concept in the system a "cell"? I know you're excited about the concept, but come on. It's just plain confusing.

    It could be really neat, but I suspect that (a) it won't work as well as it sounds (b) it'll be a nightmare to program for, so will be poorly used, and (c) no one will use it but Sony.
  • If Sony does come up with all this wonderful technology, it won't be 'powered by' a cell chip, it will be powered by electricity, probably from a wall socket.

    Someone needs to buy their marketing department a dictionary.

    Actually, come to think of it, everyone needs to buy their marketing department a dictionary.
    • You car is powered by its engine wich is fueled by ehm the fuel.

      A ford is powered by a V8 wich is fueled with petrol.

      My Linux desktop is powered by a dual P3 wich is (and here is where the trouble starts) powered by electricity.

      "powered" can mean both stages. So yes everyone does need a dictionary but some of us also need to learn common sense. That unfortuanly is not available in a book. I do got a clue-bat right here maybe that will help?

  • Been there done that.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by shri ( 17709 ) <shriramc.gmail@com> on Tuesday May 25, 2004 @05:22AM (#9245465) Homepage
    Broadband TV? Thats so ... 2003. We have had it in Hong Kong for over 10 months now. Connects into the DSL modem and provides on demand cable channels.

    http://www.nowbroadbandtv.com/

    (My apologies... the site is in flash)

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