San Francisco (CA) – This year’s IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) will offer once again hundreds of briefing sessions on the latest developments in the semiconductor industry. Among the most interesting in the microprocessor category are sessions about a 45 nm Cell processor, Intel’s quad-core Itanium Tukwila and entry-level Silverthorne CPUs as well as Sun’s 16-core Niagara 3 chip.

Information provided through the ISSCC 2008 program are brief, but the document - which was posted earlier this month on the ISSCC website – offers some insight what we can expect to learn this year. Sony is apparently working on a 65 nm to 45 nm migration of its Cell Broadband Engine. Sony claims that the chip area size will be reduced by 34% and the 45 nm Cell will consume 40% less power than the 65 nm generation. The company also works on improving the design for manufacturability (DFM) for Cell to simplify the CPU production process.

Link: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/45nm-Cell-BE,news-27328.html

geeeze... more cost reductions xD

wow, This is designed by Toshiba? After Sony sold its plant.

those guys sure know how to make a good processor.

so... cheaper production cost = price cut = smaller PS3 = save me money when I do Folding@home

 It should be designed by IBM and manufactured by Toshiba.

 I figued your list No where has it been stated that research into shrinking the CELL was going to be ended by Sony. 

As for power consuption. this is a giant NO CRAP. This is true for all of Intel's and AMD's processors too. 

Another thing is that with the smaller processor comes a smaller PSU and motherboard which will cut costs even more.

Now we need a 45nm RSX. 

further cost reduction should allow sony to star making some real money and (hopefully) bring price cuts

Good. Let's keep it coming.

and when the fabrication of of 45nm Cell processor is expected to start.? and when the Playstation build on 45nm Cell processor are expected to hit the retail?

I m sure we will be seeing a new SKU from Sony on 45nm Cell processor whenever it happens...

Costs for the PS3 seem to be dropping all the time. This is only good news for Sony.

When did Tom's Hardware become such a crappy site? I mean, do they even do hardware reviews anymore? I don't even see the 8800GT on the video card list. It looks like a generic news site now.

Edit:  hmm, are tomshardware.com and tomshardware.co.uk affiliated?