With its 45nm SOI Cell processor, the new “slim” version of Sony’s PlayStation®3 sold 1 million units worldwide in the first 3 weeks following its September 1st launch.

It’s on SOI. Here’s Why. Toshiba’s new Cell Regza TV is poised to redefine both high-definition (HD) TV and TV-Internet convergence. At the heart of this strategy is the SOI-based Cell processor. It was almost a decade ago when Toshiba first teamed with IBM and Sony to create the Cell. The SOI-based solution enabled the …

Sony is investigating sculpting the waveguide between two layers of buried oxide. The mainstream of microprocessor research activities has recently moved from increasing clock speed to multiplexing the number of microprocessors. Therefore, communication technology between microprocessors is of great interest in obtaining performance advantages.

• Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) reports that since the company’s participation in Stanford University’s Folding@home™ program launched in March, response from the Cell-based Playstation®3 users has been “phenomenal”. The distributed computing project aims to understand protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. The more than quarter of a million PS3 users have more than doubled …

The PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 CPU design teams all chose SOI. Here’s why. Design challenges (Read the Cell overview paper by Kahle et al on the IBM website) Achieve 100 times the PlayStation®2 performance. Joint developers IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba needed to co-optimize the chip area, design frequency, and product operating voltage, creating …

• Nintendo has announced that the CPU of its new Wii® game console is based on a PowerPC (code-named “Broadway”) made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, jointly developed with and manufactured by IBM. The design was optimized with state-of-theart processing technologies that minimize power consumption and keep the console compact. The confirmation of …

• Sony Corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Toshiba and IBM have announced a new, five-year phase of their joint technology development alliance to focus on fundamental research related to advanced process technologies at 32 nanometers and beyond.

IBM, Sony/SCEI and Toshiba are actively encouraging the proliferation of CELL applications   The most celebrated of Cell applications, Sony’s PlayStation® 3, is due out next spring. In the meantime, the SOI-based Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) microprocessor, as it is officially known, is getting a big push from its joint developers: Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. …

Following a long and distinguished career at Sony and Hitachi, an industry visionary reflects on what’s to come   For about the past four decades, chip progress was achieved by “shrinking”. Things were simple because three factors – speed, power and density – were improved simultaneously. In the case of advanced nano devices, leakage current, …

• Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) has officially released the product specifications for it PLAYSTATION® 3 (PS3) computer entertainment system. The PS3 incorporates a 3.2GHz SOI-based Cell processor, jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. The PS3 launch is set for Spring 2006.