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Cell Workstations in 2005

Posted by michael on from the it-slices-it-dices dept.

yerdaddie writes "The cell processor will be introduced in graphics workstations before release in the Playstation 3, according to press releases by IBM and Sony. As previously discussed, IBM will be releasing more details in February 2005. However, apparently prototype workstations have already been "powered-on" and will be available in 2005. Since Windows on PPC was scrapped back in 1997, this leads to speculation that perhaps Linux, AIX, or BSD will be the operating system for cell workstations."

9 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Distributed Processing by Halcyon-X · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It has been stated before that the PlayStation 3 is expected to be capable of distributed processing due to the capabilities of the Cell architecture. Whether or not that will indeed be the case remains to be seen, it is certainly a lofty goal for the current market penetration (not to mention speeds) of broadband in the home. Does Sony expect these PS3s to cooperate with their Cell-based television sets?

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    .sig: Open Source, Open Mind

    1. Re:Distributed Processing by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

      The stated goal is for some future playstation (maybe the fourth generation) to use the cell processor and yes, to cooperate with cell devices in televisions, dvd players, et cetera. If we end up with cell PCs they'll be candidates too. They could run linux, of course. To be honest, that's the Xbox, if it were clustering, and it could have been if there were any reason for it to be. Sony will probably use some kind of IEE1394 (i.Link in Sony's parlance) possibly including 800Mbps in order to connect Cell devices. 1394 allows significant cable lengths and near-gigabit speeds today; it is intended to support 1.6Gbps and later even 3.2Gbps (over fiber.)

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  2. my favorite quotes by mxpengin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For all practical purposes, the PowerPC has been relegated to a Mac-only solution while high performance NT users have turned to Digital's Alpha....

    This move puts Apple Computer in another awkward position: the company had been planning on using Windows NT in its Web servers.

    And my favorite actual fact is that microsoft is going back to Power PC with the new Xbox . But Im sorry that Alpha has been erased from the map.

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    "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." -- Linus
  3. Cell Processor Architecture: Graphic by amigoro · · Score: 5, Informative

    The graphic

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    Nothing to see here
  4. Re:XBOX2 + Cell = Windows by binary42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. You are mistaken. Xbox will have a PowerPC derivative. Not a POWER derivative. Also, I should note that Cell, although part is derived from the POWER4, is not really anything like the POWER4 architecture.

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    ruby -le"32.times{|y|print' '*(31-y),(0..y).map{|x|~y&x>0?' .':' A'}}"
  5. Re:Ultimate workstation... by Steveftoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do realize that the whole reason that Transmeta's processor works well at all is because it's hopelessly optimized for emulating x86 instructions. And their software took years to write and it still is not 100% correct. (they still have some bugs in the x86 emulation) It's not going to be easy to do such a thing and at the end of the day what would be the advantage of running emulation at that level when you can just run a user level process to emulate a PIC, or ultrasparc or whatever you want?

    I don't see the point of being able to boot into a random chip because you also have to emulate the entire computer, not just the cpu.

    Even if you could emulate an ultrasparc cpu, you can't just throw it into a PC case and boot solaris, you have to use an actual SUN computer that has the right video, network and ide cards in it otherwise you'll have a broken machine. There are lots of little things that will cause the machine to break. The cpu is the heart of a computer, but it's not the only piece. They all have to fit together or it won't work. Just like you can't go and install a copy of OSX on a motherboard for the MorphOS (you can, but it's through an emulation layer, Mac on Linux) It's not at the kernel level.

  6. Windows for Power exists by dan_sylveste · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The development kit for Xbox 2 is Windows NT4 for PPC with Xbox 2 extras.

  7. Re:XBOX2 + Cell = Windows by shplorb · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, CELL is based around the 970. Expect about 80-90% performance compared to an equivalently clocked 970. Where it goes nuts is that there's a number of vector units attached that are basically "VMX on steroids" to quote one of the main guys at IBM behind this. The vector units (or Data Plane Processors as they're calling them) can also communicate between each other as well as with the central core. The workstations are actually headless server blades, each of which will have 2 CELL's on them and they'll be running Linux.

    This stuff isn't bullshit, it was all disclosed Thursday at the Australian Game Developers Conference. I didn't sign a NDA so it's all good. I also fondled a PSP =]

  8. On-chip DRM worries by avocade · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm still a bit worried that I've not heard much about the seemingly built-in DRM management of this new platform (that seem to be able to spread to all facets of technology, including toasters). According to a clause in the pressrelease by IBM and Sony from Nov. 29, the Cell processor will have:

    - On-chip hardware in support of security system for intellectual property protection.

    Is this the end of tampering-capable hardware (e.g. machines where you can modify the kernel, bypass DRM-systems etc) that some people have long foreseen? Anyone more in-the-meat of the technical details care to elaborate on this?

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    avocade.com
    In a free and open internet, who needs Windows