Sony president Ken Kutaragi has revealed the company’s ambitious plans for the PS3’s Cell processor in a keynote speech given at the Tokyo International Digital Conference.

Following a projector-based showing of a Playstation 3 title under development, Kutaragi stated that he expected the PS3 to run at 120 frames per second (fps) - double the 60 fps target of rival console Xbox 360. In fact, Electronic Arts’ Xbox 360 launch titles will run at a disappointing 30 fps.

At present, TVs aren’t capable of displaying a game running at 120 fps, however, Kutaragi’s vision is for the PS3 to be poised to take advantage of such advances in technology.

In addition to its impressive framerate, the PS3 may also be able to analyze images taken with a high-speed camera connected to the console, and input the results to a game. Indeed, Sony has already demonstrated the Cell’s impressive ability to analyze and ‘mirror’ images in real time at the CEATEC 2005 conference held earlier this year.

Kutaragi’s plans for the Cell processor aren’t limited to the Playstation 3 console, however: his keynote detailed how the Cell might be used in conjunction with high-definition television, and as the basis for a cluster server.

According to Kutaragi, the Cell could be used in HDTV sets to decode multiple HDTV signals simultaneously, as well as allow rotation and enlargement of images.

As for the cluster server, Kutaragi proposed a design incorporating 16 Cell processors each running at 2.5 GHz, which would allow the server to achieve an operation rate of 25.6 teraflops.

Source: http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/

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