TECHNOLOGY ENVISIONS ALL-IN-ONE BOX FOR HOME
Sony"s next-generation video-game console, due in just two years, will feature a revolutionary architecture that will allow it to pack the processing power of a hundred of today"s personal computers on a single chip and tap the resources of additional computers using high-speed network connections.
If key technical hurdles are overcome, the ``cell microprocessor"" technology, described in a patent Sony quietly secured in September, could help the Japanese electronics giant achieve the industry"s holy grail: a cheap, all-in-one box for the home that can record television shows, surf the Net in 3-D, play music and run movie-like video games.
Besides the PlayStation 3 game console, Sony and its partners, IBM and Toshiba, hope to use the same basic chip design -- which organizes small groups of microprocessors to work together like bees in a hive -- for a range of computing devices, from tiny handheld personal digital assistants to the largest corporate servers.
If the partners succeed in crafting such a modular, all-purpose chip, it would challenge the dominance of Intel and other chip makers that make specialized chips for each kind of electronic device.
``This is a new class of beast,"" said Richard Doherty, an analyst at the Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y. ``There is nothing like this project when it comes to how far-reaching it will be.""