68w ago - Following up on our previous article, today Kotaku (linked above) reports that according to inside sources Sony may be ditching the Cell Processor for the PlayStation 4 console.

Below are the details, to quote: "The PlayStation 4 will not use Sony's Cell processor nor any possible successor to the vaunted chipset that was introduced to the world through the PlayStation 3, gaming industry sources tell Kotaku.

What we're hearing from sources follow a Forbes rumor last week that chip-maker AMD would make the graphics chip for a PS4, a shift from the PS3's use of a graphics chip from AMD rival Nvidia.

The abandonment of the Cell architecture would thrill the many game developers who have struggled with the complex chipset, but it could also be viewed as the admission of a mistake.

Cell was the pet project of PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, who dreamed that the chip- a "Power Processing Element" married to eight "Synergistic Processing Elements"- would make the PS3 the most impressive gaming console ever. He spoke of a home equipped with multiple devices that were powered by Cell, all of them linking to each other to increase the computational power driving any...

132w ago - As a follow-up to his recent PS3 SELF Decrypter PSGroove Payload and PS3 3.50 Firmware Decryption work, today PlayStation 3 developer graf_chokolo has released a PS3 LV2 Kernel Decrypter payload for PSGroove.

Download: PS3 LV2 Kernel Decrypter PSGroove Payload / GIT

To quote from his comment on xorloser's blog, linked above:

graf_chokolo says:

I just release my lv2 kernel decrypter You need metldr, lv2ldr, RL_FOR_PROGRAM.img and lv2_kernel.self. You have first to dump your metldr from FLASH memory. lv2ldr you will find also in your FLASH memory or in decrypted CORE_OS_PACKAGE.pkg from PUP files.

RL_FOR_PROGRAM.img is a revoke list for programs and can be also found in PUP files. lv2_kernel.self is on your FLASH memory or in decrypted CORE_OS_PACKAGE.pkg.

First i send all files to PS3 and store them in memory. After that i load metldr in isolation mode and pass it...

184w ago - We have explored most of the internals of the PS3 TOOL, with world-exclusive pictures, not too many people are willing let alone crazy enough to open one of these beasts!

Now we start getting to the more interesting aspects of the TOOL, and what makes it different from everything else.

The Communication Processor, or CP is a small, embedded computer, inside the PS3 TOOL. Essentially, it is a totally separate system, isolated from the PS3 side of the system.

For a little bit of history, the PS2 TOOL worked the same way, there was a small, embedded computer on a PCI card inside of the PS2 TOOL, it facilitated communication between the hardware (PS2) and a PC.

Of note, the PSP TOOL is somewhat similar, however the CP is embedded on the mainboard, vs on a card (like the PS2/PS3). The same principle applies to the PS3 TOOL, the CP handles all communication between the PS3 side of the PS3 TOOL, and a networked PC.

So, the CP makes the PS3 TOOL "special" as it allows the debugger to tap into hardware lines on the system itself, to get more debug output, among other things.

Starting from the top of the picture (below), the CP has a connector, labelled CN5001 - this connects to a RJ-45 jack, and a RS-232 jack on the TOOL...

186w ago - QPACE, the supercomputer at Research Center Jülich and the University of Wuppertal, is now deemed the world's most energy efficient supercomputer on the Green500 List.

The Green500 List ranks the energy efficiency of supercomputers around the world.

To quote: "The QPACEs Intel PowerXCell processors are an enhancement of the Cell/B.E. processor, originally developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM for Sony's PlayStation 3 console.

QPACE (Quantum chromodynamics Parallel Computing on the Cell) is being used to simulate forces in elementary particle physics, especially in the research area of quantum chromodynamics, which describes such things as how a proton is made up out of quarks and gluons.

It consists of four racks at Research Center Jülich and four at the University of Wuppertal. Each of the QPACE installations has a top performance of 100 TeraFlops, equal to 100 trillion floating point operations per second. The supercomputer runs a standard Fedora Linux distro OS.

Each rack in QPACE contains 256 IBM PowerXCell 8i nine-core processors and 1 Terabyte storage, and uses 30 kilowatts of power."

187w ago - Update: DriverHeaven.net has now received clarification on this from IBM, to quote: "only one CPU development cycle is being 'halted' which is the successor to the current PowerXCell-8i cpu. IBM have said they are planning to work on other CPU's in the Cell Processor 'family'."

Today PlayStationUniversity.com (linked above) is reporting that IBM's Vice President David Turek announced that Cell processor development will be phased out.

Apparently the planned 32 SPE Cell processor will not be made, and their current PowerXCell 8i will be the company's last entrance in the technology.

To quote: "The Cell Processor was originally the brain child of 'The Father of PlayStation' Ken Kutaragi. It was later co-developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba; making its way into the PlayStation 3, TV's and super computers.

So what does this mean for Sony and the PlayStation 4? Will this change with IBM pulling out of their own development?

Not necessarily. Sony can still hire IBM to create a Cell Processor for their next console, without IBM being involved in their own internal development outside of the...