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Unreliable Cells

PS3

Tom Reeves, vice president of semiconductor and technology services at IBM told Ed Sperling, of Electronic News, that the Cell processor chip that runs the PS3 is unreliable. One can only help but think of the disastrous issues Microsoft has had with the red lights of doom on early 360 consoles.

"It becomes a bigger problem the bigger the chip is," Reeves commented. "With chips that are one-by-one and silicon germanium, we can get yields of 95 percent. With a chip like the Cell processor, you're lucky to get 10 or 20 percent."

The vice president also remarked that if two or more of the eight cores in the processor were blown during operation, then the system is screwed. "If it's within warranty, you send it back. If it's not, your game doesn't work anymore."

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