The Cell -- 64bit POWER PC (was RE: Maybe This Explains WHY!)

Just ran across this:

"The prototype chip discussed Monday is comprised of one 64-bit Power PC 
processor core and eight separate processing cores that the companies call 
"synergistic processing elements," or SPEs."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/02/07/HNninecorecell_1.html


Charles Wilt
iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
ph: 513-573-4343
fax: 513-398-1121
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jack Derham
> Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 8:30 PM
> To: MidRange List
> Subject: Maybe This Explains WHY!
> 
> 
> The article that I have included below may explain why our 
> friends at IBM
> don't have the budget to push iseries:
> 
>  
> 
> New chip unveiled
> 
> IBM, partners develop a product to greatly boost computing 
> power of video
> games, televisions.
> 
>  
> 
> By BOB KEEFE
> 
> bkeefe@xxxxxxx
> 
>  
> 
> San Francisco - IBM Corp. took wraps off a new semiconductor Monday it
> describes as a "supercomputer on a chip" that promises to dramatically
> increase the computing power in video game systems, 
> televisions and other
> consumer electronics.
> 
>  
> 
> At an engineering conference here Monday, semiconductor 
> designers from IBM
> and partners Sony Group and Toshiba Corp. said their new 
> so-called Cell
> processor has 10 times more computer power than traditional 
> chips when it
> comes to some applications.
> 
>  
> 
> "This really is a new era in performance," said Jim Kahle, 
> and IBM fellow
> who oversaw the chip's design.
> 
>  
> 
> With other features that let it handle video and Internet 
> applications, Sony
> and Toshiba are betting the Cell chip will give them an edge 
> over personal
> computers makers in the ongoing battle to become digital 
> entertainment hubs
> in consumers' living rooms.
> 
>  
> 
> The chip is capable of giving Sony's next-generation 
> PlayStation 3 game
> console the computing power equivalent to supercomputers used 
> in high-end
> research projects.
> 
>  
> 
> With that sort of power, characters would appear in photo 
> quality and move
> in real "human-time," Kahle said, instead of with short 
> delays inherent in
> today's video games. 
> 
>  
> 
> But just as importantly, the extra computing power could be 
> used to help
> transform the game console into a home's primary source for delivering
> music, movies and Internet - based entertainment - all areas 
> in which Sony
> has interests.
> 
>  
> 
> Toshiba has similar goals in mind when it starts putting the 
> chips in some
> of its high-definition televisions beginning in 2006.
> 
>  
> 
> Sony, Toshiba and other electronics companies have been under 
> increasing
> pressure from computer companies pushing new "media center" 
> PC's that are
> designed to be digital media hubs for photos, video, audio and home
> computing tasks.
> 
>  
> 
> The Cell chip could help the electronic makers regain lost ground.
> 
>  
> 
> "This won't perform {traditional} PC-type functions --- but it could
> definitely be a challenge to the media center PCs," said Tom 
> Stames, an
> analyst with technology research company Gartner Inc.
> 
>  
> 
> A Cell-equipped game console would likely be substantially 
> cheaper than a
> media center PC, Starnes said - probably selling for a few 
> hundred dollars
> compared with a few thousand dollars for today's media center PCs.
> 
>  
> 
> Even in the expensive realm of chip design, the Cell chip has 
> been a massive
> undertaking.
> 
>  
> 
> More than 400 engineers, primarily at IBM's semiconductor 
> design center in
> Austin, Texas, have worked on the project since the three 
> companies started
> collaborating on it in March 2001.
> 
>  
> 
> In all, the companies have spent more than $2 billion on the 
> design and
> retrofitting chip factories in New York and Japan that are 
> scheduled to
> start producing the chips later this year.
> 
>  
> 
> While Sony's Playstation 3 console and Toshiba's TVs will 
> probably be the
> first devices with the new chips, the three companies will 
> also be marketing
> them to other consumer electronics companies to recoup development and
> production costs.
> 
>  
> 
> The new Cell chips can support virtually every type of 
> operating system, IBM
> claims. They also can be virtually linked to other Cell 
> chips, increasing
> their performance potential even more.
> 
>  
> 
> The new chips are also unique in that they can have up to 
> nine "cores," or
> processing units, allowing them to handle up to 10 different software
> operations at the same time.
> 
>  
> 
> In contrast, makers of personal computer chips are only 
> starting to push
> into multicore processing - a technology that IBM pioneered.
> 
>  
> 
> Jack Derham
> 
> Direct Systems, Inc.
> 
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