http://gizmodo.com/5121603/sony-basically-designed-the-xbox-360-processor-for-microsoft-says-new-book

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.

The WSJ pulls out facts like IBM employees trying to hide their work from people from companies in cubicles next to them, helping one team out (the Microsoft team) with their design process based on knowledge they had already gained from the Sony side, and most importantly, that Microsoft received the chip from manufacturing BEFORE Sony did because they ordered "backup manufacturing capacity from a third party." [WSJ via PS3 Fanboy]

Having read the WSJ article now, I have to say this doesn't make any sense. They're saying the cores of the 360 chip are derivative of the Cell design (presumably the PPE).

Newsflash, both the Cell's PPE and the 360's three cores are pretty regular PowerPC cores which have existed and evolved for years now. If you have an old Mac laptop, you own one of those. By the way, there's this console called the Wii... yeah, it also has a PowerPC-based CPU.

I really don't see any meat to these claims, but of course I didn't read the book.

The problem with this is that much of the architecture was actually designed by AMD. The Northbridge, and GPU were their design as they are one combined unit. The CPU side was actually more the generic half of the architecture (Unless like NJ5 said, im missing something)

i don't really get this - I thought Sony used totally different tech than 360.
Don't know what the book is trying to prove either. Microsoft stole something? PS3 is a better machine?

Not quite that regular as both the Cell's PPE and each of the 360's cores are in-order processors whereas most normal PowerPC cpu's are out of order. This allows to use less silicon as you do not have to put the reordering logic in but makes it less efficient and puts more stress on the compilers to keep the processor busy.

From what I read (don't have the source anymore, it was 1-2 years ago) both PS3 and 360 PPC cores where derived from a research project at IBM, but where the 360 got 3 of them the cell got a big numbers of advanced DSP's tacked on (the SPE's).

Coca-Cola: The PPE part of the Cell is very similar to one of the individual cores of the 360's CPU and both are very similar (but slightly less so) to the Wii's CPU though much faster (a bit like the difference between different generations of x86 chips). The part where the PS3 is drastically different is with the SPE's which while not as flexible as the PPE are good at number crunching. You could say they are half way between a CPU and a GPU. It is because programmers where more used to using traditional CPU's than less flexible SPE's that the PS3 had difficulty matching the 360 in multiplatform earlier on in its life. Now that they have more knowledge and better tools from earlier efforts you see both versions on par or slightly favoring one or the other.

I don't see any scandal here. All CPU are evolutions, there is nothing radical or ground breaking in any of the current console CPUs.

All 3 wii , PS3 and X360 use power PC to start with.
The 128bit x128register design of the ALTIVEC SIMD units on the X360 Xenon CPU and the Cell's SPU's also have 128bit x128register are a common feature which is not seen before on previous power chips design sharing it's quite obvious. What you would expect since they both came from IBM, i was impressed with both chips but the Cell more so since it is so extreme no more of the older slow parts of the Power Archecture it's SPU's are pure SIMD with multi core, crunching and logic.

Aside for that turns out the CPU & GPU is not what next-gen is about - most users could not care less. Nintendo turn out the be ones with the only next gen console by putting their research into something even more important the "total user experience".
At the end of the day if your new super computer is not user friendly and fun it will end up in the bargain bin ! - Microsoft and Sony have been tasting defeat in the face of the Wii. Even the bargain bin X360 arcade has done nothing to slow the Wii's market domination.

I just read it, and it makes no sense wtf?

interesting.