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PS3 gets some tinkering
Sean Ridgeley - Friday, April 25th, 2008 | 11:07AM (PT)


Not quite a PS3 slim, but getting there

For those who haven't bought a Playstation 3 yet but are planning to, there's some good news for you: this new third generation of models will be lighter, smaller, more efficient  and hopefully priced lower thanks to some work by Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd.

In the first to second generation switch, Furukawa replaced the Cell produced in 90nm process technology with one produced in 65nm; this effectively reduced the cost and power consumption of the machine. This sort of trend will continue with the third generation - replacing and rehauling until the PS3 is as good as it can be. Of course, it kind of makes you wonder why they didn't make it this efficient in the first place, but what can ya do.

The company showed off the new model at Techno-Frontier 2008, which features an additional heatsink (one for the "Cell" microprocessor, one for the graphics LSI "RSX") and the elimination of some (evidently) unneccessary wiring. Copper heat pipes were used in the first two generations (five in the first, two in the second), but this time they'll be gutted altogether. Apparently they just don't need 'em, as the heat-radiation performance is entirely adequate without the pipes.

More than 20 components were used for the sinks in the first gen and half that in the second, this resulted in a 700 and 500g weight for the components in each case, respectively. This time we'll see a mere three, a fin and pin made by aluminum and a thick aluminum plate used as a substrate, so they'll amount to 350g total.


PS3 gets some tinkering Image 1

Source: Gamegrep

Section: Sony Consoles

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Comments:

April 25th, 2008 12:00PM(PT)
x_revenge
goes to show you shouldn't just go and buy something the moment it is released but instead wait to see what others say about or for problems to be fixed or the price to be lowered or blah blah blah, patience is a virtue
April 25th, 2008 12:43PM(PT)
tallteen86
True, but it sucks to wait.

In any case, to the article writer. They didn't use it from the start because they didn't have the resources (at least on a cost efficient level) to do so. You need to build/modify facilities to change the dye size (for the processors), you can't just press a few buttons and presto, you've reduced the size of the processor.

Technology gets better (and smaller) as time goes on.

Trial and error are also involved, which takes time. MS for example, didn't do enough testing in their X-box 360 due to their rush to get out before their man rival Sony (and to a lesser degree, Nintendo). The result? Massive RRoD problems >_>
April 25th, 2008 2:07PM(PT)
chautemoc
Oh yeah, I recognize the cost and technology factors, more or less I was referring to the trail and error thing..I wonder why they didn't just do more of that before launch and get it better than they did. But yeah, time is a factor too.

Yeah, there's a gigantic page on Wikipedia that show at length all the problems the 360 as. Looking at it, it's a wonder anyone buys it. They could release every favourite series of mine on it, I still wouldnt buy it.
April 25th, 2008 3:45PM(PT)
bleepbloop
What's the ETA on this? Serial numbers to identify them?
April 25th, 2008 5:48PM(PT)
chautemoc
Well they've started production on them now, so..all the newly produced ones will be improved..as for model numbers, no idea. Call Sony.
April 26th, 2008 2:01AM(PT)
GigavoX
will be nice to see the size of it.but still i think the price will still be chokong high
April 26th, 2008 11:20AM(PT)
x_revenge
so from 600 they'll get to 550 or something...big deal...
April 26th, 2008 5:50PM(PT)
THM
I'm getting tired of thier money-making schemes by reducing or overhauling some small components for cost-cutting reasons, but what I really want is the PS2 emotion-engine chip inside the PS3 console.

Nobody can bloody do that, except in classic 60GB Model.
April 26th, 2008 8:27PM(PT)
brice
I got the classic 60 gig moddle, its nice for the most part, but im seriously considering getting the 3rd generation to replace it. dispite the lack of the emotion engine for ps2 games i hardly ever play anyway, it would be consideribly less hot. im still in high school, and have an admitibly small room with amazingly bad ventalation, and the ps3 makes my room exceedingly hot. hell the wii makes my room uncomfortable and it barily does as much as the ps3.
April 26th, 2008 9:37PM(PT)
iamjoe56
Time to move out of the closet, Brice. Come out of the closet, come out now.
April 27th, 2008 11:22PM(PT)
super michael
Only USA and Japan had the emotion engine for PS2 in Europe it was removed.

Thats why I didn't get it because I was waiting to see if Sony puts in the emotion engine like USA but instead they removed it completely.

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