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Sony/IBM/Toshiba: CELL Almost Ready
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."
Exactly... Anyone remember the emotion engine in PS2? Oh yeah that turned out to be so much more powerful than the other systems... scoff scoff... marketing is crap... theyre all going to be close enough in power in the end...
does this mean that we cant play games on the ps3 without a internet connection?
IBM's vision of GRID computing is that compute resources are like the electrical grid: you pull what you need from the grid on demand. Personally I don't see the value for most applications
That's not entirely complete, so that's why you don't see the value. IBM will have a great big server farm, with machines filling the room, all subpartitioned.
Company X, Y, and Z will tell IBM "take my apps and host them for me". IBM could host them all conventionally, which is fine. But, they have the technology to use GRID to lower their costs. X, Y, and Z's apps might all be running on the same server, in different partitions. If X suddenly needs 10 times the capacity (for example, HR Block in tax season) their apps will transparently migrate to some faster CPU's somewhere else. IBM just bills for the cycles used, no matter where they are used.
In this way, IBM can fill a room with 100 gigantic servers, and host 1000 customers' apps. Their competitors might fill the same room with 10000 servers, hosting 1000 customers' apps. That would be wasteful, because overall, the server farm might be 90% idle.
GRID computing is a technology, and On-Demand is the product it supports.
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
First, they sell you a 4-core PS3 that runs all of the 1st Gen PS3 games. Then, as the developers learn to use the platform, and the development tools get better, the games start requiring more processing power. Sony then starts selling 8-core or more PS3 consoles (and/or upgrade cards).
Second, Sony starts offering other electronics with CELL chips. E.g. televisions with built in MPEG-2 Decoders utilizing CELL processors. So, instead of buying a new PS3, you buy a Sony television with 4-core CELL, and plug in the P3 via Fiber optic for a total of 8-cores. And when you aren't playing games, the TV can use the PS3 for additional decoding power (e.g. for multiple channel DVR functionality etc.).
Then, buy a Sony PC with "media center" functionality, and it has additionall CELLs on board (along with the regular x86), and thereby boosts the whole home "network" if connected via fiber (some propriatary interface Sony will no doubt make big bucks on).
Fiber isn't necessarily new in the home for this type of application. My stereo already has fiber-interconnects for digital audio (DVD, HDTV Cable Box, PS2).
Final stage: all of your entertainment devices are CELL based. Sony starts selling "modules" which do nothing but add additional CELLs to the network. Plug in an additional 4-Core CELL module and you can play PS3 games that won't run on just the console. Sony doesn't need to come out with new consoles anymore, just better development tools, and more consumer stuff that interconnects. ("Sure, you can buy the other toaster, but if you buy the SONY CELL toaster you can play the newest games!")
It's the ultimate in market lock-in, and unlike Betamax, it just may work if the PS3 is widely adopted as just the newest console. If they port Linux and OO to it, they may even give MS a run for their money in the general home-OS market! Wow, it's diabolical.
I'm a lawyer with excellent karma. Something's gotta be wrong.
>> 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."
...and where on the net does the extra performance come from?
I presume this is not what it sounds like otherwise you'd HAVE to be connected to broadband and get good throughput 100% of the time you're playing.