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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."

7 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Latency? by digerata · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but could someone please explain to me how graphic rendering can be done with something with such high latency as a network connection? Its bad enough when I have to use MAIN MEMORY.

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  2. How? by Jahf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We've been hearing about how this processor is going to help broadband connections speed up the system for awhile, often saying it will speed up graphics.

    How?

    Yes, I get grid technology for massively parallel computing ... but speeding up graphics would:

    * require an amazing bandwidth ... 256K down / 128K up (basically the minimum for me to consider it broadband and you have to consider the minimums) is just not going to cut it.

    * require insanely low latency ... imagine a twitch game where your ping affected not only model updates but the graphics themselves.

    I -have- to assume until someone shows otherwise that this technology does nothing for the -graphics- but rather is used to help with the overall console processing.

    Any decent explanations of how Sony et al plan to actually utilize this technology?

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    It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
    1. Re:How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's all marketing rubbish. They did exactly the same thing with the 'Emotion Engine' chip when the PS2 was being developed.

    2. Re:How? by QuantumRiff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Cell chip is a bunch of little processors on the same die, (think dual core, but its more like 16). the broadband they are talking about is the super high speed bus (on the chip) between the cores. By broadband they are talking about the bandwitdth between the cores, bandwidth is not only a measure of network speed.

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      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
  3. How NOT to summarise an article by Andy_R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What the slashdot summary of the story said:
    "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."

    What the original article actually said:
    "the CELL is a next-generation multimedia processor with the ability to handle intensive graphics and high-bandwidth communications."

    So much for clarity and brevity.

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    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  4. What it means in a nutshell from a nut... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some people still don't understand, and you call yourself geeks...

    The Cell Processor will have, lets say for arguments sake, 10 CPU cores on a grid setup. This means that the work load will be distrabuted through out the 10 cores evenly or where needed. The term grid probley come from the fact that this is how server farms work in theroy. Who knows.

    Now for what bradband is... IT IS NOT A INTERNET CONNECTION! They are talking about the pipe/wires/lines/monkeys that will carry the data to the cores, cpu, memory, and such.

    You don't need a server farm for the grid, it's not that kind of grid, nor do you need a power station, it's not a power grid eather. You don't need bradband, but it might help if it has a connection for 1Gigbit.

    Brush up on your geek myfriends.

  5. Re:Clever... by aliens · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only problem is that breaks the entire Console way of making games. Game designers who work on consoles know exactly how their game runs on a system. If they have to start creating multiple settings for users to turn on and off it's going to get more complicated I would think. Suddenly they have to count the number of CELL's connected and adjust the game accordingly.

    Or release games that have CELL requirements? Sounds good for a techie, but for an average consumer?

    kids: "Mommy mommy I want that game it says PS3"

    moms: "I guess that means it will run correctly"

    At least that's how I see it.

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