cell
Hardware
Toshiba’s SpursEngine Chip to Improve Internet Videos with PS3 Tech
10:50PM Mark Wilson | Toshiba’s new SprusEngine chip can’t do anything about annoying internet memes, but it does promise to include their image quality a bit. More »
Games
Sony: PS3 to Get 45-Nanometer Chips Around June
7:20AM Mark Wilson | According to David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertaintment Europe, the PS3 could get a 45-nanometer Cell chip in a few months. From an interview with The Guardian: More »
Games
Sony Basically Designed the Xbox 360 Processor For Microsoft, Says New Book
7:45AM Jason Chen | The new book The Race For a New Game Machine, by two IBM engineers, details how ridiculous the design process was when IBM was making Sony’s PS3 cell chip. Microsoft basically got a free ride. More »
Hardware
Ericsson’s Pretty Tower Tube Cell Towers Now Wind-Powered
12:20AM John Mahoney | We like Ericsson’s idea for the original Tower Tube–take something as ubiquitous and ugly as a cell tower and add a touch of nice design and a streamlined manufacturing process that saves money and energy. Now they’re taking the idea in another cool direction by adding a four-blade vertical wind turbine to the already-efficient design, allowing it to generate much of its own power. It’s a concept in trial stages currently but something that makes a whole lot of sense. [Ericsson via PC World] More »
Hardware
Video Cards Featuring SpursEngine (Cell Processor) Coming Soon
5:00AM Mark Wilson | We’ve already seen the SpursEngine teased in laptops, but Toshiba is becoming vocal about bringing the SpursEngine—the same technology found in the PlayStation 3 Cell processor—to standalone video cards in 4-core configuration. The first will come from Leadtek later this month for $US286, a 128MB card that can fit into a small form PC, and it will be followed in November by Thomson cards that will start in the high $US300s. SpursEngine cards have built-in MPEG2 and H.264 codecs which equal smooth video playback and the ability to uprez SD content on the fly. And at least Leadtek’s offering sounds like a solid alternative to small media PC packed with integrated graphics. [PCWorld] More »
Hardware
Cell Processors to Go 45nm in ‘09; Smaller, Cheaper PS3s Likely to Follow
10:30PM John Mahoney | Sony and Toshiba announced that they had successfully shrunk the 65nm cell down to 45nm earlier this year, and now thanks to Japan’s Nikkan Kogyo, we now have a date for mass production: 2009. At a 40% reduction in power consumption, the shrunken Cell will generate less heat, which would help the PS3 to lose some of its piano-black bulk in a slim version. Cheaper production costs also means more $$ for Sony (or price drops for us). This could also lead to wider adoption of Cell technology in HD upscaling, which Toshiba is already doing in their SRT-enabled TVs and DVD players (but with their own custom chip). [Nikkan Kogyo (Translated)] More »
Screens
Toshiba’s Regza ZF HDTVs Do Their Own Cell-Processor Upscaling
9:46PM Kit Eaton | Toshiba’s new Regza ZF HDTVs don’t upscale your DVDs to HD resolution with any old chipset or engine: they do it with a Cell-processor based system. Bonkers! It’s the first TV to upscale with a Cell, and according to its European executive vice president, Toshiba’s future “does not involve Blu-ray disc” but will use this sort of tech to deliver high-res imagery. The upscaling system uses the Cell for some advanced image-processing techniques, creating interpolated pixels to give the final image “near-HD” quality. The sets will also have Active Vision M100 100Hz HD picture processing, 178-degree viewing angle, 30,000:1 contrast ratio and 10-bit processing. The ZF TVs will be in 40- and 46-inch sizes, the 40-inch out now with pricing of around US$2,390, the 46-pricing and availability is not announced yet. [Toshiba.co.uk and Toshiba.de-via Google translate.] More »
Computers
Toshiba Qosmio G55 is First Laptop With Cell Processor Aboard
6:24PM Kit Eaton | Toshiba’s Qosmio G55 has popped up on Giz over the last couple of months, talking about its advanced gesture controls which rely on its use of the PS3’s Cell processor tech, and now it’s official. Toshiba’s calling it the “world’s first laptop with cell processor tech inside,” and concentrates on four functions it gives the machine. Upconvert/upconversion (basically 1080i upscaling,) transcoding of video formats, face-based video indexing and gesture control. The laptop will have a starting price of US$1,299.99. Press release below. More »
Computers
Toshiba Qosmio Line Gets Cheaper, More Fun with GPS-Equipped F55, X305 Gamer and G55 with PS3 Cell Chip (Updated with Video)
11:25PM Wilson Rothman | Toshiba decided to divvy up its Qosmio line into three very different machines, with starting prices way below the US$3,000 that Qosmios previously cost. • The 15.4″ F55, with starting price at US$1,150, will include built-in GPS—with Garmin navigation and mapping software—while its US$1,750 configuration will have some reasonably decent gaming capability as well. • The already leaked (and leaked) 18.4″ monster G55 includes gesture-based controls—hand gestures in front of the camera—enabled by the Cell chip found in PS3s. This secondary processor also helps transcoding HD video and face tracking while editing video. It is priced from US$1,300 to US$1,550. • Toshiba has officially rolled its gaming systems into the Qosmio brand, starting with the X305 (which you may have seen). The 17″ gaming notebook will cost anywhere from US$1,550 (in retail configs) to US$3,500 with overclocked Core 2 Extreme processor, WSXGA resolution screen and two 7200-rpm drives. UPDATE: Video showing gestures, GPS interface and more below, along with gallery and press release. More »
Hardware
