The specifications for the "Cell" chip were recently unveiled by engineers from Sony, IBM and Toshiba.
Dubbed a "super computer on a chip", it will have 8 "synergistic processing units" that allow speeds faster than 4 GHz (faster than Intel's current high-water mark of 3.8GHz), and will be capable of processing 256 billion calculations per second (256 gigaflops).
The Playstation 3, expected to be released next year, will have a Cell chip onboard, and a test of the chip is due for later this year on PC workstations optimized for animation and graphics tasks.
While the PlayStation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use Cell, the chip's designers have said the flexible architecture means that Cell will be useful for a wide range of applications, from servers to cell phones. Initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a game console, however--the first version of the Cell will run hot enough to require a cooling fan, Kahle said.
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