The memory read speeds for the SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements, or "APUs" these days) was horrible. It was about 3 orders of magnitude slower than it was meant to be.
This is why the chip basically died. Memory read speeds for the SPUs were impossibly slow, meaning that they were crippled into uselessness, AIUI.
Charlie Demerjian did a good exposé on this for the Inquirer, but the page has been taken down. Here is a blog post that references it, though:
http://topofcool.com/blog/2006/06/05/sony-suicide-watch-ps3-...
The memory read speeds for the SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements, or "APUs" these days) was horrible. It was about 3 orders of magnitude slower than it was meant to be.
This is why the chip basically died. Memory read speeds for the SPUs were impossibly slow, meaning that they were crippled into uselessness, AIUI.