Somewhat expected, but Sony and Toshiba (their joint venture produces Cell & RSX for PS3 in Japan) have confirmed 45nm Cell will go into mass production in 2009.
In other news, IBM (who also produce Cell for products other than PS3) aim to be the first to 22nm after moving to 32nm in 2009. Intel are planning on transitioning to 22nm in 2011, so IBM could have a 22nm Cell in 2010. Sony & Toshiba seem to be a year behind IBM though (IBM have been manufacturing 45nm Cell for sometime already), so for PS3 it looks like:
2009: 45nm Cell
2010: 32nm Cell
2011: 22nm Cell
Several articles are speculating PS3 will go "slim" when 45nm Cell hits, but I'm not so sure. They could certainly make a slimmer PS3, but in the past they've traditionally waited until they've been able to make a larger reduction in size than I think will be possible with just 45nm Cell (remember, RSX has only recently gone 65nm, so 45nm RSX is still someway off). With PS3 being bigger than PS1 & PS2 I guess it's always possible that Sony could be planning two size reductions this gen, such as a "PS3 slim" and a "PS3 slimmer".
Sony, Toshiba to build 45nm Cell chip in 2009
Sony and Toshiba today said they would start producing 45 nanometer versions of the Cell processor next year. The process is 50 percent more complex than the 65 nanometer process used for most current Cell chips and will allow the PlayStation 3 to use both a much smaller and cooler-running processor but also to cost less. Versus the current manufacturing process, the two companies' new technique can produce about 50 percent more chips at a time, reducing the cost for each processor.
The update will also be important for notebooks like the Toshiba Qosmio G55, which uses a variant of the Cell processor to decode and transcode videos without taxing the main system. A shrunken, inexpensive processor would let Toshiba introduce the hardware into similarly smaller notebooks.
Neither company has outlined their specific plans, though Sony has historically released a slimline version of its PlayStation consoles most of the way into their respective lifetimes that reduces the size of the case and often adds or removes features based on the company's experience with the platform.
IBM's new breakthrough could allow its next generation of Cell processors to reach 22 nm before Intel does.
New techniques will allow tinier computer chips than ever before
The race to shrink circuits is a never ending one. Having achieved 45nm with its Penryn processors, Intel is looking to move to 32nm next year for the die-shrink of its upcoming Nehalem processor. Meanwhile, competitor AMD is struggling to get its first 45nm offering, Shanghai, ready for release later this year.
However, while the back-and-forth between AMD and Intel often steals the show, the race for die shrinks has several other key competitors. One is Texas Instruments (TI), who claims to lead Intel in 45nm deployment and performance. While TI currently doesn't have much in the way of PC/server processor plans, IBM does. IBM is looking to beat AMD and Intel in die-shrinks and pave the way for its processors to dominate a number of markets, including the PC/server space.
Having already shrunk its powerful Cell processor used in the PS3 to a 45nm production process, IBM is planning to quickly transition to 22nm.
At 22nm, the existing techniques for microprocessor manufacturing useful at the 45nm and 32nm nodes will become obsolete. While currently lithography techniques cannot produce 22nm circuitry, IBM has developed a new approach called Computational Scaling, which will allow for this tiny-scale production. The new technique uses advanced mathematical computation to adjust the shape of the masks and illuminating source during etching.
One key advantage of IBM's breakthrough is that it can advance from 32nm to 22nm without fundamental changes to its equipment. While Intel and AMD are likely to devise similar techniques, the early breakthrough may allow IBM to seize a lead in shrinking, helping it to continue Moore's Law.
Advantages of such smaller processor are numerous. Due to the shorter interconnects, and other factors, smaller die-sizes yield power savings. Further, the tiny size will allow for heat reduction. Finally, it may also allow for more cores in similar packaging.
Like Intel, IBM is planning to bring its 32nm processors to market in 2009. However, whether it will adhere to Intel's 2011 deployment of 22nm or jump the gun is up in the air.
One thing that is clear is that IBM has plans to deploy 22nm server chips to compete with Intel's offerings. IBM hopes to apply the new tech to its cloud computing efforts. It hopes the greater efficiency and processing power afforded by 22nm will help to justify an increasing amount of business and private processing to be offloaded to cloud computing datacenters.
IBM also announced in August that it and its partners had developed a method of manufacturing static RAM (SRAM) cells at a 22nm node.
