PS3 Cell Could See Size Drop, PS3 Slim to Follow?

by John Kershaw on February 11, 2008 at 7:42 pm

Like this, but smaller.

Is the PS3-slim looking closer to reality than we first thought? IBM have announced that they will soon be producing a smaller, cooler, and potentially cheaper version of the Cell BE, the processor which powers the PS3.

Currently, the Cell is produced using a 65nm process, meaning the smallest thing on the chip’s die is 65nm wide. The new high-k process will be able to shrink this down to 45nm. This will produce smaller transistors on the chip, which in turn will require less energy to operate, produce an overall energy savings of around 40 percent, and reduce the total physical size of the chip by 35 percent.

Although shrinking the physical size of the chip won’t help shrink the total size of the PS3, reducing a lot of the cooling requirements of the Cell could lead to the removal of several cooling components and shrink the remaining ones, as well as the total cost of the unit.

Blu-Ray players have also been dropping in size, with some more recent models being slim enough to fit inside laptops. Although not currently produced in large quantities, it shows clear potential for other ways the PS3 could lose some weight.

Don’t go expecting your PS3 to drop a couple of dress sizes just yet, however. With the PS3 struggling to make a profit for Sony, it would seem unlikely they would push for a new model to be released too soon, especially considering how early we are in the PS3’s predicted lifespan. The Slim PS2 was released 4 years after the original launch of the PS2, so following that model, pencil late 2010 into your diaries.

Source: ars technica

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