PS3 Cell chip powers super TV

via Computer and Video Games


We've got HD TVs now, so what's next from the world of TV tech? Well Toshiba has few ideas for screens powered by PS3's Cell processor.

Toshiba contributed to the development of the PS3's Cell chip along with Sony and IBM, and its new flat-panel TV is the first fruit of its investment.

These new uber-screens use the raw grunt of the Cell chip to provide some sweet new features.

Gone will be the days of having to flick through channels one-by-one - Toshiba's TV has enough processing power to render and display 48 standard-definition thumbnail videos simultaneously.

Click on one thumbnail and it'll be displayed on the bottom half of the screen for you to check out in more detail, while 16 thumbnails remain streaming on the top half. Clicking the same channel again makes it full screen.

With HD video, it can render six streams at once, said Toshiba spokesperson, Hiroaki Komaki, at the CES demonstration.

The Cell chip would also provide more powerful upscalling opportunities. It could upscale standard-def video extensively, in real-time, to achieve a picture quality that's far closer to HD than current sets do.

It could also offer a zoom feature that would upscale the portion of the video you zoom in to, resulting in minimal loss of quality.

So, 48 streams at once, and ultra-zooming features - that's a porn fan's dream.

The sets shown were just for demo purposes, and the final features of a Cell-based TV are yet to be finalised, but they certainly they won't include PS3 gaming integration, says Toshiba.