Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sony/IBM/Toshiba: CELL Almost Ready

Posted by timothy on from the just-polishing-the-lock dept.

thryllkill writes "According to Gamespot the CELL processor, assumed to be the main processor for the Playstation3, is near completion. The short (and light) article also says that the chip will be used in IBM computers and Toshiba electronic devices. The CELL processor is significant because it is touted to utilize grid technology over broadband connections to make the graphics capabilities of the new Playstation many times greater than the competition."

8 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. "grid technology over broadband connections" by FooAtWFU · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'm still on a dial-up modem, you insensitive clod!!!

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  2. Information on El Reg by Doodlepants · · Score: 5, Informative

    El Reg has an informative piece up http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/05/sony_cell_ cpu_to_deliver/

    1. Re:Information on El Reg by mausmalone · · Score: 2, Informative

      It all makes sense now! The "broadband" quote came from Kutaragi, who either (a) doesn't speak English as a first language, or (b) was incorrectly translated, or (c) is an executive and therefore able to use jargon incorrectly as much as he wants. For anyone scratching their heads about grid processing over broadband, substitute "bus" for broadband and you'll probably start to get it, as he was talking about chip-to-chip communications, not system-to-system. Read the register article in the parent post, too. It has a lot of good details.

      --
      -=-=-=-=-=
      I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
  3. Re:Latency? by richy+freeway · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does it anywhere say Broadband Internet connection?

    No.

    Thanks for listening.

  4. Re:How? by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Informative
    By broadband they are talking about the bandwitdth between the cores, bandwidth is not only a measure of network speed.

    "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does." ;)

    Bandwidth does not mean data-transfer rate, no matter what the marketroids say. They are different quantities measuring different things in different units. Even though they are related in some cases.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth

    http://everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=871448

    http://everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=996851

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  5. Cell is an architecture, not the processor for PS3 by News+for+nerds · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cell is a scalable processor architecture, and its prefered embodiment called Broadband Engine in this patent by SCE is expected in PS3.

    While broadband in Broadband Engine obviously means high-speed interconnection between its APUs and PEs and PUs and eDRAM in the first place, its double meaning propagates through its optical interface. This Broadband-ness will initially start from optical-fiber intranet in home, then Cell spreads to servers, routers in ISP, and so on to form larger network. Rather than sharing power, its main point is sharing the same language/ISA across the network. X86 is not enough apparently, without network-awareness such as GUID and latency calculation of remote object. The patent states "1. A computer network comprising: a plurality of processors connected to said network, each of said processors comprising a plurality of first processing units having the same instruction set architecture and a second processing unit for controlling said first processing units, said first processing units being operable to process software cells transmitted over said network, each of said software cells comprising a program compatible with said instruction set architecture, data associated with said program and an identification number uniquely identifying said software cell among all of said software cells transmitted over said network. "

    I don't know what OS will be used to control them, but Linux must be one of candidates in Cell server-side.

  6. Re:Err...what? by damiam · · Score: 3, Informative

    Broadband refers to high-speed connections between multiple processors on the same chip, within the PS3. The Internet is not involved.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  7. Re:How? by MarsDefenseMinister · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually they are the same. Grid is a term that is more general than Seti-like infrastructure. Grid is the technology that enables other things. In the case of SETI, the technology enables the SETI@home product to run across multiple computers. In the case of IBM, Grid enables their On-Demand product. Hopefully that helps out a bit. IBM has been rather confusing in explaining the relationship between grid tech and On-Demand. In case you're wondering, people inside of IBM are sometimes confused too.

    --
    No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan