PlayStation 3's RSX is 240mm², with 28 pixel shader units
13th Nov 2006, 16:54 GMT
Posted by Hanners Posted Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:27:15 EST Beyond 3D have spent some time and effort poring over die shots of the NVIDIA created RSX core which powers the PlayStation 3's graphical abilities, and have come across some interesting information. Quote: Based on the RSX die shots released by websites following the PlayStation 3's launch in Japan yesterday, we have successfully estimated the chip's die size by comparing it to the nearby Samsung GDDR3 memory chips. The result is approximately 240mm² and, even with the imperfect precision of our measurement method, we can safely claim it's between 230 and 245mm². That makes RSX roughly the same size as the CELL revision used in the PS3, which is known to measure 235mm², and it's a fair bit bigger than NVIDIA's PC equivalent to the RSX: the 90nm NVIDIA G71, which has a die size of 196mm². While TSMC's 90nm transistor density might be slightly different from that of Sony's fabs, it is unlikely to be a major factor here. The chip is also rumoured to run at 500MHz internally. Based on our analysis and information, it seems that the RSX has 28 pixel shaders internally, with 24 active. G71, on the other hand, has only 24 and NVIDIA sells the defective parts as the 20 pixel shader GeForce 7900 GS. Such an opportunity for multiple SKUs based on the same die does not exist with consoles, and therefore higher redundancy is desirable. It's also likely that other parts of the RSX are therefore disabled for yeilding, such as the vertex shaders and possibly the raster operations units (ROPs). This is similar to the strategy used by Sony with the CELL, where 1 of the 8 SPEs is disabled. Read their thoughts and findings in full here .
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