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THE GRAPHICS CHIP in the PlayStation 3 will be a hybrid NV40-50, according to reports at PC Watch and Xbit Labs.
While the bulk of the core will use NV40 (that's GeForce 6-series) architecture, techniques developed for the next-generation chip will also be utilised. Interestingly, we have recently been hearing that NV50 is cancelled, but what (if any) relationship this has to its utilisation in the PS3 we don't know.
The reports suggest that the GPU will be made at Sony's own fab, which is well known for having a 65 nanometre process. This kind of shrink will allow the chip to run far cooler than the NV40 does today - we don't expect the PS3 to have a dual slot graphics cooler.
The graphics hardware will support XDR memory, which is a proprietary technology created by Rambus Inc. Console followers will know that RDRAM was used in the PS2 for the main system memory, and we don't expect anything different this time around. As early as 2003, we reported Rambus being used to power Sony's Cell processor, which requires extremely high-speed interconnects to pump data back and forth between subsystems