Before you jump to conclusions, it’s not that IBM will no longer manufacture that precious little chip that powers your Sony PlayStation 3, but the Sony, Toshiba and IBM co-developed processor will not see the previously announced 32 SPE processor ever happen now. Not by IBM at least. And previously, Toshiba bought out Sony’s stake in the Cell CPU foundry [ article here ] almost two years ago.

IBM’s most recent development in the Cell Processor’s design is the PoweXCell 8i, which is featured in the second most powerful supercomputer in the world; Roadrunner.

However, this is where Cell will end for IBM. The company’s Vice President David Turek, told German website Heise Online that the planned 32 SPE Cell processor will not be made.

Fret not… the PlayStation3 processor will still live on. And if Sony wants to use a variation of the Cell in the PlayStation4, I’m sure IBM can be convinced with a few briefcases of money. But it does make you wonder what else will happen for this “wonder” chip. Seems to me like it’s finally starting to lose to the faster, more efficient (to program for at least) CPU plus GPU combination.

[ PlayStation University ] [ Heise Online ] [ IBM ]