PS-X
04-07-2004, 08:03 AM
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11349
quote:
==================================================================
"Figuring out the number of transistors for PS3 is a bit tough at this point
in time, but my guess:
The original estimate for the Broadband Engine (Main Processor) is over a
billion transistors on a single chip, but I don't see how Sony can pull that
off by 2005, but the CELL architecture lends itself to being on multiple
chips, and then at some later date all being put on a single chip.
Broadband Engine will most likely be four chips in it's first iteration,
with each chip having one control CPU, one DMA engine, and eight
co-processor cores (which are really the CELL processors themselves) along
with 8 MB of eDRAM.
My estimate of 20 million transistors per CELL processor, comes to 160
million transistors total for one chip, and the 8 MB of eDRAM comes to 64
million transistors plus some for the DMAC and some for the control CPU, so
rougly 250 million transistors.
Four chips means 1 billion transistors for the Broadband Engine alone. Could
be two chips with 500 million each, but the end number is the same at 1
billion.
Now my guess for the GPU, is two chips at rougly 300 million each, which is
two sets of (one control CPU + one DMAC + four coprocessor cores (CELLs)),
and 16 MB of eDRAM, along with some extra logic for the backend rasterizer
as mentioned in the CELL patent.
So two chips at 300 million is 600 million for the GPU. Add the 1 billion
from the Broadband Engine and we have 1.6 billion transistors.
Some people here like Deadmeat, are assuming that Sony will simply not be
able to deliver anywhere near their goals, and so have drastically reduced
the power of the PS3, and so have included that in their transistor
calculations. My estimate sticks to Sony's goals, and is more likely to be
accurate.
The Broadband Engine can easily be multiple chips, because Rambus's 50
GB/sec chip-to-chip 'redwood' interface can be used for chip-to-chip
communications and data transfer, and the design will never be crippled for
future integration simply because no process in a game will ever span more
than eight CELL processors which exist on a single chip. No game process
would need to run on 32 processors at the same time."
=================================================================
is this possible given the timeframe (2006) and cost (sold for $300~$500)
?
quote:
==================================================================
"Figuring out the number of transistors for PS3 is a bit tough at this point
in time, but my guess:
The original estimate for the Broadband Engine (Main Processor) is over a
billion transistors on a single chip, but I don't see how Sony can pull that
off by 2005, but the CELL architecture lends itself to being on multiple
chips, and then at some later date all being put on a single chip.
Broadband Engine will most likely be four chips in it's first iteration,
with each chip having one control CPU, one DMA engine, and eight
co-processor cores (which are really the CELL processors themselves) along
with 8 MB of eDRAM.
My estimate of 20 million transistors per CELL processor, comes to 160
million transistors total for one chip, and the 8 MB of eDRAM comes to 64
million transistors plus some for the DMAC and some for the control CPU, so
rougly 250 million transistors.
Four chips means 1 billion transistors for the Broadband Engine alone. Could
be two chips with 500 million each, but the end number is the same at 1
billion.
Now my guess for the GPU, is two chips at rougly 300 million each, which is
two sets of (one control CPU + one DMAC + four coprocessor cores (CELLs)),
and 16 MB of eDRAM, along with some extra logic for the backend rasterizer
as mentioned in the CELL patent.
So two chips at 300 million is 600 million for the GPU. Add the 1 billion
from the Broadband Engine and we have 1.6 billion transistors.
Some people here like Deadmeat, are assuming that Sony will simply not be
able to deliver anywhere near their goals, and so have drastically reduced
the power of the PS3, and so have included that in their transistor
calculations. My estimate sticks to Sony's goals, and is more likely to be
accurate.
The Broadband Engine can easily be multiple chips, because Rambus's 50
GB/sec chip-to-chip 'redwood' interface can be used for chip-to-chip
communications and data transfer, and the design will never be crippled for
future integration simply because no process in a game will ever span more
than eight CELL processors which exist on a single chip. No game process
would need to run on 32 processors at the same time."
=================================================================
is this possible given the timeframe (2006) and cost (sold for $300~$500)
?