Sony to use Playstation2 technology for workstation line
eet.com
TOKYO &#o151; Believing it has grabbed the lead in graphics
technology, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) plans to develop a
Creative Workstation line that makes full use of the company's
Playstation2 technology and environment, according to SCE president
Ken Kutaragi. Planned as an environment to develop digital
entertainment content, Sony said it was forced to pursue the Creative
Workstation because PCs and workstations are no longer powerful
enough to serve as development platforms for digital content.
The Creative Workstation line will not compete directly with current
workstations, but will be targeted to penetrate various specialized
markets where digital content is created.
In announcing the follow-up to its popular Playstation game console
last month, SCE said Playstation2 will break the limitations of the
conventional game world by expanding into a world that involves music
and movies, which Kutaragi described as computer entertainment. SCE
also announced plans to make Playstation2 a terminal of wideband bit
distribution through cable modems.
SCE will build Creative Workstations under a three-phase plan using
technology developed for the Playstation2.
"In the past, workstations and PCs had more power than home game
consoles, so we could use them as development tools. But when the
power [of Playstation 2] matches or surpasses their power, it becomes
difficult to use them for development," said Kutaragi.
"Workstations and PCs always continue to evolve . . . [but] such a
story is collapsing," he said. Using the X86 and Pentium processors
as an example, Kutaragi claimed that the growth in the number of CPU
transistors has become dull. "The number of transistors does not
necessarily mean performance, but at least large number of
transistors are needed to include large scale architecture," he said.
If PCs with a 400-MHz Celeron processor and several gigabytes of
hard-disk storage satisfy most PC users, product differentiation
loses meaning and only price talks, he said. Some PCs have broke
$1,000 and dropped to $500 or less, and some are offered for free.
"The PC is losing its position as the technology driver; so are
workstations," said Kutaragi.
"Can we continue to rely on workstations and PCs in the future [for
software development]? If not, what will be the tool to incubate our
digital entertainment?" As the solution, Kutaragi announced at the
Microprocessor Forum on Wednesday (Oct. 6) that Sony will research
high-performance processors and will develop workstations based on
those processors.
Playstation2 uses four chips for the system's main processing. A chip
Sony calls the Emotion Engine serves as the core CPU, a Graphic
Synthesizer and sound synthesizer handle graphics and sound
processing, and an I/O processor provides the first-generation
Playstation environment and various interface functionality.
The Emotion Engine, developed jointly by SCE and Toshiba Corp., has
13 million transistors. The part's transistor count increased by 2.5
million since the the CPU was first announced at the ISSCC in
February. "Not because some functions are added," Kutaragi said, "but
it finally had that number of transistors after bug fixes,
specification enhancement, etc."
SCE has begun selling a Playstation2 development tool, dubbed
DTL-T10000, for about $19,000. While the development tool for the
original Playstation was provided as an extension board for a PC or
workstation, the DTL-T10000 is a separate unit that provides
programming and debugging modes and which can create graphics for
Playstation2. Sony expects to sell a good number of the tool to
software developers, but said it is not concerned even to make a
profit on the systems. Instead, Sony is looking at the effort as
SCE's R&D activity.
Workstation effort
The Creative Workstation effort at present has three phases. For
Phase 1, SCE intends to develop a workstation with about 10 times the
performance of the development tool workstation, and to complete that
work in 2000. The workstation will have the capability to handle
graphics of 1,920 x 1,080/60p (progressive). SCE will not have time
to develop new chips by 2000, so it will achieve the performance by
using in parallel faster versions of the Emotion Engine and Graphic
Synthesizer found in the Playstation2.
The Phase 2 workstation, scheduled to be introduced in 2002, will
have 100 times the performance of the development tool workstation
and will feature the Emotion Engine 2 and Graphic Synthesizer 2, each
with an enhanced architecture over the current chips. The CPU will
have 40 million transistors and will be fabricated on a 0.13-micron
process. The workstation will handle the same 1,920 x 1,080 pixel
graphics, and will have a flexible frame rate ranging from 24 to
about 75 frames/second.
The Phase 3 workstation, scheduled to appear around 2005-2006, will
have the Emotion Engine 3 and Graphic Synthesizer 3, which will have
drastically changed architectures. As a result, the workstation will
have 1,000 times performance of the development tool workstation, and
will handle 4,000 x 2,000-pixel pictures at 24-to-120p. At this
stage, Playstation3 will be taking a shape, Sony said.
The Phase 2 workstation will have real-time graphics production
capability to handle movies, which could greatly change the movie
production process, Sony said.
"We are going to raise the performance of Creative Workstations at a
high pace," Kutaragi said. "So at a certain stage, it will have
enough capability as a server for a mini-theater and at another stage
it will have capability as a [digital bit-stream] transmitter at
broadcast station."
Kutaragi said SCE is pursuing the workstations to support the
creation of content. As such, SCE would be pleased to sell just 1,000
or 2,000 units a year, he said.
SCE and Sony together invested a total of about $1.1 billion on two
fabs to establish a 0.18-micron process for the Emotion Engine and
the Graphic Synthesizer. About $472 million was spent on the Emotion
Engine's facility, which is a joint venture with Toshiba. About $660
million was spent on the fab in Nagasaki for the Graphic Synthesizer.
"This investment will be recouped by [selling Playstation2] on the
consumer market," Kutaragi said. "We will continue to develop finer
processes such as 0.15 micron and 0.13 micron to make chips shrink
and to increase productivity."
Kutaragi said SCE's engineers have a very clear target when they
develop process technology. "Process development without specific
applications will make no sense," he said. "In Intel's case, it is
very clear. They develop a process for a specific CPU. But even the
process is fine, it makes no sense if it is developed for general
purpose.
"Once such a finer process is established, we can make silicon as
large as the limit of a stepper, say 20 x 20-mm or 22 x 22-mm chips.
To develop such architecture is pure R&D. Pursuing desirable
architecture for [SCE's] entertainment CPU and Graphic Synthesizer,
we have a large freedom to challenge any architecture."
Kutaragi said SCE has no intention of entering the current
workstation market with the Creative Workstation, but will aim to
introduce the systems into the new sectors. "For example, movie
theaters currently use film projectors, but in several years, they
should be entering digital projectors," he said. "At that stage,
servers for theaters will be a good target for our Creative
Workstation." Once movie theaters are connected to backbone networks,
it will be possible to distribute movies digitally to all connected
theaters in one night.
"If we are pursuing future architecture, skilled, capable engineers
will come to join us," said Kutaragi.
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