PS3 consoles to ship with defect Cell chips
The Cell chip of the Playstation 3 console comes with eight synergistic processor elements (SPEs). Ken Kutaragi revealed that PS3’s Cell chip will use only 7 of the 8 SPEs to allow for one defect SPE in the PS3.
According to Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the production of the Playstation 3 Cell chip with 8 fully functional SPEs without defects is extremely difficult, and allowing for one of the 8 SPEs to be defect increases the tolerance in the manufacturing process and greatly lowers production costs. The Cell chip in the Playstation 3 has been designed to utilize this redundancy and use only seven SPEs. A similar scheme would also be used for the PlayStation 3’s RSX graphics processor, said “Father of Playstation” Kutaragi.
Cell chips made for the PS3 that have 2 defect SPEs could still be used for other appliances, for example in dual-CPU “Home Servers” that have larger cases than the Playstation 3 and can house two Cell chips, with a total of 12 SPEs, because the Cell chip is designed to utilize as many SPEs as it needs.
July 9, 2005 @ 10:15 am
Realness Said,
Well thats really foul?! Why offer it as a 8 -cell game unit, then only offer it with 7 working ones? Screw that, for that price I dont think I buying […] more
July 20, 2005 @ 4:39 am
me Said,
they are planning to use quantum computers for the ps3 read it up.
July 21, 2005 @ 3:13 pm
Hello? Said,
Dude it comes with 8 chips and thats a bonus to you my friend. Hello? The dude is doing this to make sure that his ps3’s are flawless do you underst […] more
July 26, 2005 @ 5:20 pm
KutlPHsh Said,
The difference of 1 SPE shouldn’t make a huge impact on it’s performance. Wherever you heard the PS3 will be using quantum computers, ignore everyt […] more
August 2, 2005 @ 11:19 am
Stupid People Said,
Go dummies go! You guys are not so smart. 1. Quantum computing is not anywhere close to production. 2. 7/8ths of the planned processor power is […] more
August 24, 2005 @ 12:48 pm
Rene Said,
Not true, one SPE is not damaged its turn off. For a reason of cost its cheaper to produce that the real story. The PS3 is powerfull enough with 7 SPE […] more
August 28, 2005 @ 12:33 am
John Said,
Maybe they should have applied six sigma process….DOH!
August 30, 2005 @ 8:34 pm
peter Said,
what Kutaragi means is that it’ll work with 7 SPE’s and the other one is for reserve in case that one SPE is faulty, i think that it really doesn’t ma […] more
September 8, 2005 @ 11:47 pm
ChewY Said,
Its kinda crappy if you are using 7 SPEs if all of them are functional, and im sure a linux hack will allow use of the 8th (if they work fine) but thi […] more
September 9, 2005 @ 8:00 pm
deborah choi Said,
the price isn’t the big factor but the fact that it only comes with seven working cell units out of the eight…dat’s cheap. it’s just like asking…w […] more
September 18, 2005 @ 12:24 am
CJ Said,
Well, only 7 are needed so if one is defective, it still works perfectly
September 19, 2005 @ 1:51 pm
Arrrrghhhhh Said,
Wow! Half of you read at a 3rd grade level. Ken is saying that he built in a redundancy. If one SPE fails, then no worries because there’s an extra on […] more
September 25, 2005 @ 1:24 am
Matthew Said,
If there’s enough of a risk of a chip failing for sony to implant a backup (and you can be sure they wouldn’t spend more money on every console for an […] more
November 13, 2006 @ 4:56 pm
Nick S. Said,
Good way to recycle minor errors…
November 20, 2006 @ 6:58 pm
Chris Said,
Just to clarify… they aren’t making it with 8 cells so they have an extra for redundancy.. the chip design is supposed to have 8 working cells. How […] more
November 21, 2006 @ 11:44 pm
me Said,
i heard that it wont play 8000 of the old games but i think that is fine who spends 1000 dollars on a system to play ps and ps2 games
January 16, 2007 @ 5:04 am
Thad Said,
Read carefully. The chip is designed with 8 SPU’s plus the core processor, but of the 8 SPU’s, one is disabled which brings the manufacturing cost do […] more