RSX

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RSX - Reality Synthesizer
1st generation 90nm
CXD2971DGB

RSX - Reality Synthesizer[edit | edit source]

The RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' is a proprietary graphics processing unit (GPU) codeveloped by Nvidia and Sony for the PlayStation 3 game console. It is a GPU based on the Nvidia 7800GTX graphics processor and, according to Nvidia, is a G70/G71 (previously known as NV47) hybrid architecture with some modifications. The RSX has separate vertex and pixel shader pipelines. The GPU makes use of 256 MB GDDR3 RAM clocked at 650 MHz with an effective transmission rate of 1.4 GHz and up to 224 MB of the 3.2 GHz XDR main memory via the CPU (480 MB max).

Specifications[edit | edit source]

RSX - Reality Synthesizer
1st generation 90nm
CXD2971AGB without IHS

RSX - Reality Synthesizer
GDDR3 BGA lifted

RSX - Reality Synthesizer
GPUcore BGA lifted

RSX - Reality Synthesizer
BGA lifted
PCB underneath

Nvidia G70 die shot

RSX die, scraped with razorblade by Héctor Martín

BGA Cracking (one of the reasons for YLOD error)
  • 500 MHz on 90 nm process (shrunk to 65 nm in 2008, to 40 nm in 2010 and to 28 nm in 2013)
  • 90 nm RSX has a TDP of 80 W
  • Based on NV47 Chip (Nvidia GeForce 7800 Architecture)
    • early development tools had NV47 with 256 bit local memory interface and 16 ROPs
    • later RSX with 128bit local memory interface and 8 ROPs
  • Little Endian
    • 300+ million transistors
    • Multi-way programmable parallel floating-point shader pipelines
      • Independent pixel/vertex shader architecture
      • 24 parallel pixel-shader ALU pipes clocked @ 550 MHz
        • 5 ALU operations per pipeline, per cycle (2 vector4 , 2 scalar/dual/co-issue and fog ALU, 1 Texture ALU)
        • 27 floating-point operations per pipeline, per cycle
      • 8 parallel vertex pipelines
        • 2 ALU operations per pipeline, per cycle (1 vector4 and 1 scalar, dual issue)
        • 10 FLOPS per pipeline, per cycle
      • Floating Point Operations: 400.4 Gigaflops ((24 * 27 Flops + 8 * 10 Flops) * 550)
    • 24 texture filtering units (TF) and 8 vertex texture addressing units (TA)
      • 24 filtered samples per clock
        • Maximum Texel fillrate: 12.0 GigaTexels per second (24 textures * 500 MHz)
      • 32 unfiltered texture samples per clock, ( 8 TA x 4 texture samples )
    • 8 Render Output units / pixel rendering pipelines
      • Peak pixel fillrate (theoretical): 4.0 Gigapixel per second
      • Maximum Z-buffering sample rate: 8.0 GigaSamples per second (2 Z-samples * 8 ROPs * 500 MHz)
    • Maximum Dot product operations: 51 billion per second (combined with Cell CPU)
    • 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with High dynamic range rendering
    • 256 MB GDDR3 RAM at 650 MHz (GDDR5 on 28 nm RSX)
      • Earlier PS3 Models: Samsung K4J52324QC-SC14 rated max 700MHz
      • Later PS3 Models: Qimonda HYB18H512322AF-14 (seen on CXD2971DGB)
      • Some Super Slim PS3 Models: Samsung K4G10325FG-HC15 or Elpida W1132BBBG-28-E-F (GDDR5, on 28 nm RSX)
      • 128-bit memory bus width (64-bit on 28 nm RSX which uses GDDR5 to achieve the same bandwidth anyways)
      • 22.4 GB/s read and write bandwidth
    • Cell FlexIO bus interface
      • Rambus XDR Memory interface bus width: 56bit out of 64bit (serial)
      • 20 GB/s read to the Cell and XDR memory
      • 15 GB/s write to the Cell and XDR memory
    • Support for PSGL (OpenGL ES 1.1 + Nvidia Cg)
    • Support for S3 Texture Compression


More features are revealed in the following chart delineating the differences between the RSX and the nVidia 7800 GTX.

Difference RSX nVidia 7800GTX
GDDR3 Memory bus 128bit 256bit
ROPs 8 16
Post Transform and Lighting Cache 63 max vertices 45 max vertices
Total Texture Cache Per Quad of Pixel Pipes (L1 and L2) 96kB 48kB
CPU interface FlexIO PCI-Express 16x
Technology 28nm/40nm/65nm/90nm 110nm

Other RSX features/differences include: 

   More shader instructions
       Extra texture lookup logic (helps RSX transport data from XDR)
       Fast vector normalize

Note that the cache (Post Transform and Lighting Vertext Cache) is located between the vector shader and the triangle setup.

A sample flow of data inside the RSX would see them first processed by 8 vertex shaders. The output are then sent to the 24 active pixel shaders, which can involve the 24 active texture units. Finally, the data is passed to the 8 Raster Operation Pipeline units (ROPs), and on out to the GDDR3. Note that the pixel shaders are grouped into groups of four (called Quads). There are 7 Quads, with 1 redundant, leaving 6 Quads active, which provides us with the 24 active pixel shaders listed above (6 times 4 equals 24). Since each Quad has 96kB of L1 and L2 cache, the total RSX texture cache is 576kB. General RSX features include 2x and 4x hardware anti-aliasing, and support for Shader Model 3.0.

Types @ SKU's[edit | edit source]

RSX die sizes, left to right: 40nm 65nm 90nm

RSX 28nm RSX from a REX-001
PS3 Model Mobo Model Mobo part number RSX type Die process Die Size Remark
CECHAxx COK-001 1-871-868-12 CXD2971GB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHAxx COK-001 1-871-868-12 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHAxx COK-001 1-871-868-22 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHAxx COK-001 1-871-868-32 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHAxx COK-001 1-871-868-32 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHBxx COK-001 1-871-868-22 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHBxx COK-001 1-871-868-32 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHCxx COK-002 1-873-513-11 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHCxx COK-002 1-873-513-21 CXD2971GB
  or:
CXD2971BGB		 90nm 258mm²
CECHCxx COK-002 1-873-513-31 CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHExx COK-002W 1-873-513-xx -? 90nm 258mm²
CECHGxx SEM-001 1-875-384-xx CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHGxx SEM-001 1-875-384-xx CXD2971BGB
  or:
CXD2971DGB		 90nm 258mm²
CECHGxx SEM-001 1-875-384-xx CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHGxx SEM-001 1-875-384-xx CXD2971DGB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHHxx DIA-001 1-875-938-11 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHHxx DIA-001 1-875-938-31 CXD2971-1GB 90nm 258mm²
CECHHxx DIA-001 1-875-368-11 CXD2971-1GB 90nm 258mm²
CECHHxx DIA-001 1-875-368-11 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECHHxx DIA-001 1-875-368-11 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm² edepot ps3secrets
CECHJxx DIA-002 1-876-912-xx CXD2982GB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHKxx DIA-002 1-876-912-32 CXD2982BGB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHKxx DIA-002 1-876-912-42 CXD2982GB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHKxx DIA-002 1-876-912-xx CXD2982GB 65nm ? 186mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECHLxx VER-001 1-878-196-31 CXD2991GB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHLxx VER-001 1-878-196-31 CXD2991GB 65nm ? 186mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECHMxx VER-001 1-878-196-31 -? 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHPxx VER-001 1-878-196-41 CXD2991GB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECHQxx DIA-001 1-875-368-11 CXD2971AGB 90nm 258mm²
CECH-20xx DYN-001 1-880-055-31 CXD2991CGB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECH-20xx DYN-001 1-880-055-31 CXD2991EGB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECH-20xx DYN-001 1-880-055-31 CXD2991EGB 65nm ? 186mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECH-20xx DYN-001 1-880-055-31 CXD2991GGB 65nm ? 186mm² ?
CECH-21xx SUR-001 1-881-945-11 CXD5300AGB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-21xx SUR-001 1-881-945-11 CXD5300AGB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECH-25xx JTP-001 1-882-481-11 CXD5300A1GB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECH-25xx JTP-001 1-882-481-21 CXD5300A1GB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-25xx JSD-001 1-882-770-11 CXD5300A1GB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ? edepot ps3secrets
CECH-25xx JSD-001 1-882-770-31 CXD5300CGB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-25xx JSD-001 1-882-770-11 CXD5300GGB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ? link
CECH-30xx KTE-001 1-884-749-11 CXD5301DGB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-30xx KTE-001 1-884-749-31 CXD5301A1GB 40nm (with IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-40xx MSX-001 1-886-928-11 CXD5302DGB 40nm (without IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ?
CECH-40xx MPX-001 1-887-233-11 CXD5302A1GB 40nm (without IHS, 4 VRAM chips) ? 114mm² ? pocketnews dissasembly
CECH-4001C NPX-001 1-887-357-11 D5305E 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ?
CECH-42xx PQX-001 1-888-629-11 D5305F 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ?
CECH-42xx PQX-001 1-888-629-22 D5305K 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ? mobile01_tw
? PPX-001 ? ? 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ?
CECH-43xx RTX-001 ? ? 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ?
CECH-43xx REX-001 1-893-507-31 D5305L 28nm (without IHS, 2 VRAM chips) ? 68mm² ?

Alternative list[edit | edit source]

RSX Series
PS3 Model Motherboard Platform
ID		 Product
Sub Code		 RSX
Series Node Size VRAM Pads IHS
DECR-1000 TMU-520 Cyt3.2 0x0001 CXD2971xxxx 90nm 258mm² 4*64MB 41x41 Yes
CECHAxx COK-001 Cok14
CECHBxx 0x0002
CECHCxx COK-002 CokB10 0x0003
CECHExx 0x0004
CECHGxx SEM-001 CokC12 0x0005
CECHHxx DIA-001 CokD10 0x0006
CECHJxx DIA-002 CokE10 0x0007 CXD2982xxxx 65nm 186mm²
CECHKxx
CECHLxx VER-001 CokF10 0x0008 CXD2991xxxx
CECHMxx
CECHPxx
CECHQxx DIA-001 CokD10 0x0006 CXD2971xxxx 90nm 258mm²
DECR-1400 DEB-001 Deb01 0x0009 CXD2991xxxx 65nm 186mm²
CECH-20xxA/B DYN-001 CokG11
CECH-21xxA/B SUR-001 CokH11 0x000A CXD5300xxxx 40nm 114mm²
CECH-25xxA/B JTP-001 CokJ13 0x000B
JSD-001 CokJ20
CECH-30xxA/B KTE-001 CokK10 0x000C CXD5301xxxx
CECH-40xxB/C MPX-001 (NOR) CokM10 0x000D CXD5302xxxx No
MSX-001 (NOR) CokM20
CECH-40xxA MPX-001 (eMMC) CokM30 0x000E
MSX-001 (eMMC) CokM40
CECH-40xxB/C NPX-001 (NOR) CokN10 0x000F D5305x 28nm 68mm² 2*128MB 34x34
CECH-40xxA NPX-001 (eMMC) CokN30 0x0010
CECH-42xxB/C PQX-001 (NOR) CokP10 0x0011
PPX-001 (NOR) CokP20
CECH-42xxA PQX-001 (eMMC) CokP30 0x0012
PPX-001 (eMMC) CokP40
CECH-43xxB/C RTX-001 (NOR) CokR10 0x0013
REX-001 (NOR) CokR20
CECH-43xxA RTX-001 (eMMC) CokR30 0x0014
REX-001 (eMMC) CokR40

Local GDDR3 Memory Physical Structure[edit | edit source]

  • Total Memory 256MB
  • 2 Partitions (128MB)
  • 64bit bus per partition
  • 8 Banks per partition (16MB)
  • 4096 Pages per bank (4KB) -> 12bit Row Address
  • Memory block in a page -> 9bit Column Address
  • Minimum access granularity = 8 bytes -> same as buswidth between RSX <> GDDR

Software[edit | edit source]

RSX Memorymap[edit | edit source]

Although the RSX has 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, not all of it is useable. The last 4MB is reserved for keeping track of the RSX internal state and issued commands. The 4MB of GPU Data contains RAMIN, RAMHT, RAMFC, DMA Objects, Graphic Objects, and the Graphic Context. The following is a breakdown of the address within 256MB of the RSX.

Address Range Size Comment
0000000-FBFFFFF 252 MB Framebuffer
FC00000-FFFFFFF 4 MB GPU Data
FF80000-FFFFFFF 512KB RAMIN: Instance Memory
FF90000-FF93FFF 16KB RAMHT: Hash Table
FFA0000-FFA0FFF 4KB RAMFC: FIFO Context
FFC0000-FFCFFFF 64KB DMA Objects
FFD0000-FFDFFFF 64KB Graphic Objects
FFE0000-FFFFFFF 128KB GRAPH: Graphic Context

Besides local GDDR3 memory, main XDR memory can be accessed by RSX too, which is limited to either:

  • 0MB - 256MB (0x00000000 - 0x0FFFFFFF)
-or-
  • 0MB - 512MB (0x00000000 - 0x1FFFFFFF)

Speed, Bandwidth, and Latency[edit | edit source]

System bandwith (theoretical maximum):

  • Cell to/from 256MB XDR : 25.6 GB/s
  • Cell to RSX (IOIFO): 20GB/s (practical : 15.8GB/s @ packetsize 128B)
  • Cell from RSX (IOIFI) : 15GB/s (practical : 11.9GB/s @ packetsize 128B)
  • RSX to/from 256MB GDDR3 : 20.8GB/s (@ 650MHz)

Because of the aforementioned layout of the communication path between the different chips, and the latency and bandwidth differences between the various components, there are different access speeds depending on the direction of the access in relation to the source and destination. The following is a chart showing the speed of reads and writes to the GDDR3 and XDR memory from the viewpoint of the Cell and RSX. Note that these are measured speeds (rather than calculated speeds) and they should be worse if RSX and GDDR3 access are involved because these figures were measured when the RSX was clocked at 550Mhz and the GDDR3 memory was clocked at 700Mhz. The shipped PS3 has the RSX clocked in at 500Mhz (front and back end, although the pixel shaders run separately inside at 550Mhz). In addition, the GDDR3 memory was also clocked lower at 650Mhz.

speed table[edit | edit source]

Processor 256MB XDR 256MB GDDR3
Cell Read 16.8GB/s 16MB/s (15.6MB/s @ 650MHz)
Cell Write 24.9GB/s 4GB/s
RSX Read 15.5GB/s 22.4GB/s (20.8GB/s @ 650MHz)
RSX Write 10.6GB/s 22.4GB/s (20.8GB/s @ 650MHz)

Because of the VERY slow Cell Read speed from the 256MB GDDR3 memory, it is more efficient for the Cell to work in XDR and then have the RSX pull data from XDR and write to GDDR3 for output to the HDMI display. This is why extra texture lookup instructions were included in the RSX to allow loading data from XDR memory (as opposed to the local GDDR3 memory).

ROM Versions[edit | edit source]

These are the listed RSX ROM (aka Vbios) versions info we have collected from lv1 debug ouput

DEH/DECR-1000: 

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.1
rsx:      a01 420/600 vpe:ff shd:3f [AE0000915:0:1:16:b:f:1:1:1]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.1
rsx:      a02 420/600 vpe:ff shd:3f [F9A458700:0:2:3:b:f:3:1:1][0:0:0:0:0:3]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [G1A828000:1:2:17:e:d:3:9:1][16:3:0:0:1:2:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [G1A834800:1:2:2:3:6:3:9:1][16:3:0:0:1:2:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:5f [AE0000993:0:1:13:c:a:1:4:2][16:3:0:0:1:3:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b01 500/600 vpe:ff shd:77 [FCA684200:0:2:2:f:7:3:5:1][0:0:0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:7d [G1A778601:1:2:15:7:10:3:7:2][16:3:0:0:1:3:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b02 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [G2A874100:1:2:e:4:6:3:9:2][16:3:0:0:1:2:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b03 500/650 vpe:ff shd:7b  [GAB886100:1:2:17:f:5:3:f:2][16:3:0:0:1:3:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx: b03 500/650 vpe:ff shd:7b [GAB886100:1:2:4:7:5:3:f:2][16:3:0:0:1:3:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx: b07 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f [J3E106900:1:2:c:b:6:3:12:1][16:3:2:0:1:3:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b07 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [J3E107200:1:2:a:6:3:3:12:1][16:3:2:0:1:3:1][0:0:0]

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.2
rsx:      b07 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [J3E078500:1:2:11:c:f:3:12:1][16:3:2:0:1:3:1][0:0:0]

DECR-1400: 

rsx:      rsx65 a06 500/650 vpe:ff shd:6f  [AP0013056:1:1:f:13:11:2:5:2][1c:0:2:0:1:2:0][2:1:0]

DECHA00A (January 2007): 

rsx:      b08 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [AP0008286:1:1:14:e:b:2:11:1][39:2:1:1:1:3:1][0:0:0]

DECH2000A (September 2009): 

rsx:      rsx65 a06 500/650 vpe:ff shd:6f  [AP0015079:1:1:b:14:14:2:5:2][1c:0:2:0:1:2:0][2:1:0]

RETAIL: 

[INFO]: BE:3.1, SB:DX3.1
rsx:      b08 1f4/28a vpe:ff shd:3f  [AP0004687:1:1:14:13:a:2:f:1][16:3:1:1:1:3:1][0:0:0]

CECH-2500
rsx:      rsx40 a01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [NN3108-17:0:4:11:c:3:6:0:1][28:0:a:0:1:0:1][1:1:0]

CECH-30xx
[INFO]: BE:12S DD2.0, SB:ZX1.2
rsx:      rsx40 a01 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [N3T552-09:0:4:9:13:14:6:0:1][22:0:a:0:1:0:1][1:1:0]

Speculatively it is likely that the very first numbers are the actual rom version (a01, b01, b03, b07, b08...) despite Sony's documentation claiming otherwise, DECR-1000 units with rom version b07 and above (and perhaps some others that have not yet been encountered) are not capable of running any firmware lower than 1.60 (from sdk 160.008) this is because the rom version is unknown/unsupported in older lv1 which will fail to initialize the RSX hardware and will cause lv1 to output a "rsx rom abort!" message, this will in turn create an exception early in lv2 boot process as it tries to use the RSX and creates a hard brick several RSX related errors such as "lv2(2): # __rsxaudio_intr_create_thread 983 ffffffff" or "graphics error 512 : 00012625 c221bbb0" ; "lv2(2): page fault handler (DSI): invalid access address 0x795d00e8!".

There is nothing in the documentation warning you about this and there is nothing preventing you (or a legitimate developer) to install an unsupported firmware as the vsh allows updating/downgrading to 1.00 or higher and the min praxis for those units is actually lower than 1.00. (0.08 to be exact) Should this issue occur to you, other than sending the unit back to Sony for servicing, the only way to fix this is to flash an ebootrom (as lv0 still runs fine and is in charge of handling flashing the system memory through lcnslsrv) the problem with that is that sony never released/issued an ebootrom for a firmware higher than 1.00.002 , so officially one would have no choice but to return the unit, that said, considering the ebootrom format is not rocket science and is actually documented (it's a very slight variation of the coreos package format, there are no specific checks whatsoever preventing you from crafting your own, it is not hashed, nor encrypted), you could (as we did) convert the PUP file of a higher firmware and flash it onto the unit to get a full recovery.

RSX Libraries[edit | edit source]

The RSX is dedicated to 3D graphics, and developers are able to use different API libraries to access its features. The easiest way is to use high level PSGL, which is basicially OpenGL|ES with programmable pipeline added in - but hardly anyone uses PSGL these days, preferring to use the native GPU command buffer generation library, libgcm. At a lower level developers can use LibGCM, which is an API that talks to the RSX at a lower level. PSGL is actually implemented on top of LibGCM. For the advanced programmer, you can program the RSX by sending commands to it directly using C or assembly. This can be done by setting up commands (via FIFO Context) and DMA Objects and issuing them to the RSX via DMA calls.

Drivers (WiP/reference)[edit | edit source]

PSL1GHT

Other References[edit | edit source]


Syscon
CXR713F Series
CELL
90 nm
65 nm
45 nm
RSX
90 nm
65 nm
40 nm
28 nm
CELL RAM
(XDR)
Elpida
Qimonda
Samsung
RSX RAM
(GDDR3 or 5)
Elpida
Infineon & Qimonda
Samsung
Hynix
PS2
Compatibility
EEGS
RDRAM
Bridge
South Bridge
Starship2
Flash
NAND
Samsung
NOR
Macronix
Samsung
Spansion
eMMC
Samsung
Panasonic
BD SATA/PATA
BD Controllers
On BD board
Sony
Renesas SCEI
Integrated
Sony
Renesas SCEI
Others
IDT SCEI
Wireless
Connectors
Other
Diverse Comp.
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