High-Speed “Cell Computing Board”

Sony to Showcase Prototype High-Speed “Cell Computing Board” at SIGGRAPH 2007

Sony will exhibit its newly developed “Cell Computing Board” prototype at SIGGRAPH 2007, to be held Aug. 7 - 9　at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif.　

The “Cell Computing Board” incorporates the high-performance Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) microprocessor and RSX® graphics processor. This results in high computational performance capable of handling large amounts of data at high speed while also achieving reductions in size and energy consumption.

This technology represents a new solution for multimedia computing applications such as computer graphics and scientific computations that require massive data quantities to be processed.

About Cell Computing Board

High-Speed
The incorporation of RSX realizes arithmetic operation speeds beyond the 230 GFLOPS of the Cell/B.E. microprocessor alone.

Miniaturization
“Cell Computing Board” can be embedded in a 1U (unit) sized server and mounted on a 19-inch rack.

Lower Energy Consumption
“Cell Computing Board” delivers high computational performance while reducing power consumption to 400W or less.

At SIGGRAPH 2007, Sony will demonstrate the following sample applications using the “Cell Computing Board.”

Demonstration of 4K Applications
Real-time image processing of 4K images taking advantage of the high performance of “Cell Computing Board.”

Demonstration of CG Rendering

Demonstration of Physics Simulation
Physics simulation taking advantage of the multi-thread processing ability of “Cell Computing Board”

Sony Plays Down Latest PSP 2 Rumours

UK, June 13, 2007 - Over the past few weeks there's been a lot of speculation that Sony is due to announce an updated version of the PlayStation Portable - with some saying it will have internal memory and a better screen - but Sony has played down the claims as just "rumours/speculation".

John Koller, senior market manager for PSP, said he wanted to "clear the air" about the recent rumours. Speaking on the official PlayStation blog he said: "I'm thrilled to hear that there's so much interest in the platform, but sorry folks, these reports floating around fall into the rumours/speculation category."

Koller also tackled claims that mobile maker Ericsson was working on a phone version of the PSP. "We haven't announced anything about a new PSP, much less one that would have phone capabilities," he explained.

PSP 2 rumours have been around for quite some time now and even Sony UK boss Ray Maguire admitted earlier this year that Sony was looking at making a smaller and lighter version of the PSP. So, it looks like we'll just have to wait until E3 to see if Sony has anything up its sleeve for sure.

Sony Ericsson files a patent for a mobile device with gaming capabilities

Sony Ericsson has filed for a U.S. patent application for a mobile device which is also capable of videogaming features.

This could potentially form a base of a PSP based mobile phone device. But the company said in a statement that they are not currently working on a phone based on its PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game brand.

Sony Ericsson spokeswoman Merran Wrigley said in a statement: “We’re continually evaluating other propositions but they have to be credible propositions. We’re not interested in sticking parts on phones that destroy the brand equity that’s been built up by Sony.”

Sony has been quite successful with their Cybershot and Walkman branded mobile phone devices. Cybershot branded mobile phones are equipped with digital camera features while the Walkman branded mobile phones feature advanced music capabilities.

Sony added that they are currently scheduled to launch products featuring music and imaging capabilities at an event scheduled to take place in Berlin on June 14. Looks like we can see a potential challenger to the upcoming Apple iPhone from Sony.