News: IBM plans to produce families of Cell microprocessors in bid to dominate consumer electronics markets
IBM, which is working on design of the advanced Cell microprocessor with Sony and Toshiba, is planning to produce many derivative designs for a wide array of consumer entertainment applications.
The move will put it into more direct competition with Intel, the world's largest chip maker, as the two giants fight over premium consumer chip markets.
Peter Hofstee, one of IBM's top chip experts and one of the leaders of the Cell design project, told Silicon Valley Watcher, "We plan to have many different versions of the Cell chip for different applications but we can't talk about them yet. The first application you will see is in a workstation product later this year, which will be used as a development platform for consumer products."
Cell will be used by Sony in a future PlayStation video game console product. But it will also be used in a wide variety of consumer entertainment products. IBM will make the first versions of the Cell microprocessor in its cutting-edge Fab in Fishkill, New York. Later versions will likely be manufactured by Sony, Toshiba, and its fab partners.
Intel is making a big push into consumer markets with its Pentium and XScale microprocessors. But it faltered recently when it scrapped plans to produce a chip for large screen TVs.
Intel has spent several years promoting the concept of the "digital home" in which PC-like devices are used to provide wired and wireless entertainment applications such as games, movies and music. But such devices are expected to cost $800 or more--similar to PCs. The Cell microprocessor is based on IBM Power microprocessor--an advanced 64-bit microprocessor. It is designed to be used in applications such as video games consoles, costing about $200. The video game console price is subsidized by video game sellers, who pay a fee to the console maker.
Mr Hofstee has previously worked on designs of the IBM Power microprocessor that use less electrical power and thus produce less heat. Intel and other chip makers have run into problems with heat generated by advanced chips. Intel recently said it would adopt a multi-processor architecture for some of its future chips. This type of design produces less heat.
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