Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. today announced that they are close the beginning trial production of the CELL processor, claimed to use a manufacturing process more advanced then anything in commercial use today.
The 65-nanometer technology sample will begin in March 2004 at Toshiba, which will supply it for evaluation to its customers, however mass production isn’t expected to begin until the first half of Toshiba’s 2005 fiscal year – dated from April to September 2005.
A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and is widely used term in the chip manufacturing process to essentially describe how many chips they can manufacture – the smaller the number, the more components can be crammed on to a chip’s surface. The boasts of the CELL processor being a ‘system-on-a-chip’ require 65 nanometer technology in order to manufacture it in large quantities.
However Toshiba and Sony won’t be the only company to begin using this technology in 2005, Intel have already made announcements of 65 nanometer technology being available by 2005.
We’ll have more information soon.
In breve:
A Marzo 2004 inizierà la produzione di una versione non definitiva del CELL destinato ai primi test per poi cominciare la produzione vera e propria nel 2005.
Poi parla di alcune specifiche e del rivale Intel (che sembra lancerà un processore con caratteristiche simili in contemporanea)