IBM Cell

[Brandon B]

Chip geeks/PC hounds/gamers should must read this write-up on the new IBM/Sony/Toshiba cell processor to first appear in the PS3:

http://www.blachford.info/computer/Cells/Cell0.html

BB

[Andrew Pratt]

to quote Neo.....Whoa

[aud19]

Skimmed over some of that...looks pretty crazy....!!! :E

I might just hold off on that HTPC for now ops: :lol:

[Gordon Moore]

There were rumblings about the CELL last year....it's now speculated that the PS3 will debut with a 4.6~4.8 Ghz processor (ca-raaaaazy). This may be a real paradigm shift...we shall see. The x86 is so entrenched that if the CELL plays to niche markets (like gaming consoles etc...) I could live with that.

It would be a dream to see this come to the PC market though.

[aud19]

I just realized... If Toshiba's involvement in this, HD-DVD and SED all pan out.... they may just take over the world!! :E

:lol:

[Brandon B]

Yeah, except Toshiba is a bit at odds here, as the PS3, which will be the first product shipping with Cells as the processor, will also include a BD (Blu-ray Disc) drive, the big competition for HD-DVD.

In other odd news, the the XboX 2 is planned to ship with an IBM power4 chip instead of Intel silicon, rather closely related to the Cell which is partly derived from power architecture. And the Xbox 2 has been announced to NOT include HD-DVD drives OR BD drives, but is instead sticking with regular old DVD.

Oh, and Gordon, the PS3 will have 4 (four) Cells running at that speed.

There are some issues with this chip becoming the CPU in a standard PC system due to its architecture. but page 4 of the link is really worth a read to get the author's (not totally unbiased) opinion on how this thing will be used.

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[Brandon B]

If you are a serious CPU chip head, here is an exhaustive rundown on the functioning and architecture of the CELL.

If you are not, you will likely understand 5-10% of what he is talking about at best (like me ).

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[JonMarsh]

Thanks for the links, Brandon. I've been following this off and on for a while, though there hasn't been much published in the previous few years.

I think there's enough potential in this architecture and the "legs" it could have that if I were Intel or AMD, I'd be worried.... very worried. I'd also be real surprised if we don't see something based on these processors out of Apple in 2006. Couple that with their Mac Mini and the rumors I'm hearing about HD video on download (Cringley is just speculating, others who supposedly know say he's almost dead on), and the fact that this isn't an incremental change (AMD64 vs Xenon) but a quantum jump (jet turbine versus propellors), and the face of computing may start to look very different over the next five years...

I for one would welcome that. XP is the best OS microsoft has ever produced (kudos, to the NT team), and it stinks in many design aspects compared with BeOS. If you've seen the media performance BeOS can provide through better design and more compact code with a 64 bit journalled file system, running on a lowly 600 MHz Athlon, you'd be pretty annoyed at the performance of the OS and media Apps on a PR3000+ AMD 64.

We get the products we're willing to settle for, at the price we're willing to pay... frankly, I wish the whole Dull mentality would just go away. At least it should have a real challenger in the near future.

[Daryl Furkalo]

PS3 sure seems to be taking a giant leap forward in technology, BR and CELL in particular.

[Gordon Moore]

I don't even pretend to comprehend 5% (well okay, maybe 5%)

I'm trying to paraphrase and maybe Jon or Brandon can fill in the blanks....

But each cell is like it's own processor, independent from the others. If necessary, the potential is there for (the equivalent of) grid computing type processes where say if you are in a networked game with 50 other machines and framerate drops (this is one example) the ability is there for cells to use other cells (from other machines) to borrow unused cycles.

Wery powerful stuff we have here.

I'd also be real surprised if we don't see something based on these processors out of Apple in 2006.

Oh no doubt, since they're having a wee bit of trouble stuffing a G5 in a laptop right now (in a form that is copacetic with the apple philosophy).

A speculated 80W at 4 Ghz is not slouchy at all :yesnod:

Mulitcore seems like a stop gap now. Cell is like something out of T2 in thinking (by comparisson) 8)

[Brandon B]

There is some issue with Apple using the CELL as while the multipurpose Power CPU controlling the game supports SIMD (Altivec), the 8 APUs do not. So it would cause some problems (as in a major rewrite) for OS X. Or so I read in some analyses.

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[JonMarsh]

There is some issue with Apple using the CELL as while the multipurpose Power CPU controlling the game supports SIMD (Altivec), the 8 APUs do not. So it would cause some problems (as in a major rewrite) for OS X. Or so I read in some analyses.

BB

But perhaps a major rewrite is unavoidable- it would give them some incredible advantages, compared to the effort others would have to make.

SOMEDAY Apple is going to wake up to the fact that first and foremost, they're a software company, IMO.