PlayStation 3 GPU: NV40 And NV50 Hybrid With XDR DRAM, Says Report
Some peculiarities of the PlayStation 3 graphics processing unit developed at NVIDIA Corp. showed up on the web. It appears, that the visual processing unit will merge NVIDIA’s present and future generation architectures and will have built-in memory controller that supports Rambus’ XDR DRAM.
Source: X-Bit LabsA report over Japanese web-site PC Watch suggests that the PlayStation 3 graphics processing unit will use NVIDIA’s technologies found in the current NV40 generation of its own chips as well as numerous techniques developed for the next-generation part known under NV50 code-name. Still, despite of circuitries of the company’s desktop chips found in the GPU, according to NVIDIA’s chief Jen-Hsun Huang, the PlayStation 3 GPU has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft DirectX or OpenGL and will use Sony’s API for the console. Naturally, the PlayStation 3 graphics processing units supports XDR DRAM memory developed by Rambus. While there is nothing new in Rambus memory for Sony, NVIDIA has never worked with memory by Rambus.
Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO and President said the two companies had worked closely “over the past two years” on the “next-generation computer entertainment system”. He said the company had been designing its next-generation GeForce GPU in parallel. It is unclear which chip Mr. Huang referred. NVIDIA is currently developing graphics processors code-named NV47 and NV50. The latter was recently rumoured to be cancelled, though.
The custom GPU will be manufactured at Sony Group’s Nagasaki Fab2 as well as OTSS (joint fabrication facility of Toshiba and Sony). The Sony’s Nagasaki Fab2 facility is known to use 65nm SOI fabrication process jointly developed by IBM. The fab is expected to be able to produce 15 thousand of 300mm wafers a month.
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