PS3 motherboard gets smaller!

[Maximus]

But not by much...

http://www.networknewsjournal.com/ne...ets-naked.html

OLD


NEW


The article shows the original PS3 mainboard design against a proposed one from Rambus. Looks like they are using the 1024Mb XDR chips now, probably at 65nm process node which should mean even greater cost savings and less power draw. Also looks like the FlexIO (off-die memory controller) has had a die shrink and therefore the lanes are much smaller as well, which should hopefully allow the Cell to reduce in size.

All in all quite a bit smaller...

As you can see though, it is nowhere near small enough for a slim model, a lot of stuff would have to be reduced before Sony could make any sort of PS3 slim. The original has got everything fabbed at the 90nm process and the new one at 65nm, but the overall size reduction has been minimal, probably due to internal constraints of the unit. The board looks much less cramped though so a greater reduction in size is probably possible.

[j_rocca42]

does smaller = better? or does it only have to do with cost saving? hopefully this will start to translate into a nice little price cut...

[ussrelativity]

Thank you for the images. I wonder what it will look like when things are at 45nm.

[Steelmaker]

Maybe it's just my eyes but they look exactly the same size to me.

[Lucy Diamond]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

Maybe it's just my eyes but they look exactly the same size to me.

Ha ha...that was my first instant reaction, but it is just the perspective.

If you take a look at the main Cell processor and Graphics processor, you will see two additional large chips to the North and West quads of the motherboard.

It looks like they shaved off a good inch and a half, maybe almost 2 inches all around.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by j_rocca42

does smaller = better? or does it only have to do with cost saving? hopefully this will start to translate into a nice little price cut...

smaller is always better. less heat..cheaper

looks like we could be waiting a while until a slim ps3 tho

[Dynamo of Eternia]

While I'm sure there's alot more to it than this, would the smaller motherboard have anything to do with the fact that the older, original models had PS2 backwards compatibility (via a chip in the 60GB and 20GB models) and the newest models don't have b.c. at all?

[Twankies08]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

Maybe it's just my eyes but they look exactly the same size to me.

I agree they look the same it looks like the top one is a
close up of the bottom

[Ascended_Saiyan]

Originally Posted by xtop

smaller is always better. less heat..cheaper

looks like we could be waiting a while until a slim ps3 tho

...and less power draw, too.

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

While I'm sure there's alot more to it than this, would the smaller motherboard have anything to do with the fact that the older, original models had PS2 backwards compatibility (via a chip in the 60GB and 20GB models) and the newest models don't have b.c. at all?

The is a part of it. Another part is that chipsets have been combined and reduced in size.

[groovyone]

Cool.