Cell Architecture Explained

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Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday January 20, 2005 @08:37PM from the closer-looks dept.

IdiotOnMyLeft writes "OSNews features an article written by Nicholas Blachford about the new processor developed by IBM and Sony for their Playstation 3 console. The article goes deep inside the Cell architecture and describes why it is a revolutionary step forwards in technology and until now, the most serious threat to x86. '5 dual core Opterons directly connected via HyperTransport should be able to achieve a similar level of performance in stream processing - as a single Cell. The PlayStation 3 is expected to have have 4 Cells.'"

12 of 570 comments (clear)

Human skin cells by MarkRose · 2005-01-20 20:41 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah, but can my inkjet print them?

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This is beginning to sound more like by gotr00t · 2005-01-20 20:42 · Score: 2, Funny

a DBZ reference: "Part 4: Cell Vs the PC"
1. Re:This is beginning to sound more like by goodbadorugly · 2005-01-20 21:12 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  a DBZ reference: "Part 4: Cell Vs the PC"
  
  The 45 episode saga in which:
  
  Bill Gates becomes a cyborg and summons the forces of evil.
  
  A new Cell is constructed out of unsold Itaniums (Not to be confused with the Cell built by Sony, which is a friendly robot that is found out to be good. ( Until he is found out to be evil when the heroes notice he is under the control of the cyborg Bill Gates who has been behind the charade the entire time) and challenges the world to a rematch of earth shattering proportions
  
  Second string characters have meaningless conversations that take up entire episodes
  
  There is hilarious comic relief from common citizens in various towns as their cities crumble around them
  
  Krillin dies
  
  The dragon is summoned
  
  Goku gets a haircut ...Good lord I should have my anime viewers license revoked for knowing all that crap.
2. Re:This is beginning to sound more like by Rethcir · 2005-01-21 01:27 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You forgot that the first 10 minutes of each episode will recap the prior episode, and the last 10 minutes of each episode will be a preview of the next episode.
  Inuyasha? KAGOME!
Re:What's that? Microsoft isn't supporting it? by metricmusic · 2005-01-20 21:02 · Score: 2, Funny

listen to the wise old man:

With great power comes loads of software

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Cool! by Jacco+de+Leeuw · 2005-01-20 21:04 · Score: 4, Funny

85 Celcius operation with heat sink
Well, perhaps "cool!" is not the correct response...

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Cells everywhere! by mrgsd · 2005-01-20 21:15 · Score: 2, Funny

The full specifications haven't been given out yet but some details [Specs] are out there:

* 4.6 GHz
* 1.3v
* 85 Celcius operation with heat sink

In toasters.. ovens..

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End Communication.
STI by smallguy78 · 2005-01-20 21:52 · Score: 3, Funny

i didn't understand any of the document, but damn it looks fast

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Cell Architecture by biglig2 · 2005-01-20 23:21 · Score: 1, Funny

Fairly straightforward I would have thought; use lots of thick stone, big locks, and don't forget the bars on the window.

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Re:if it sounds too good to be true.. by Jaysyn · 2005-01-20 23:26 · Score: 2, Funny

Stopping China from getting them? Aren't they made in China?

Jaysyn

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Nicholas Blachford is an idiot. Please don't read. by Anonymous Coward · 2005-01-21 00:22 · Score: 5, Funny

Nicholas Blachford is an idiot. Do not read any of his articles. Just to give you the best of Nicholas, read his antigravity article and visit his web site:

http://www.blachford.info/quantum/gravity.html

Also, look at the nose pictures of him ;)

http://www.blachford.info/other/me.html

Seriously, the guy has burned most of his sane braincells.

For serious laugh, read his article series 'building the next generation' from osnews. I really got good laughs from that 4 part series.

Also, it didn't take long to spot a totally idiotic statement from todays slashdotted article:

> Parallel programming is usually complex but in this case the OS will look at the
> resources it has and distribute tasks accordingly, this process does not
> involve re-programming.

Here Nicholas misses the core problem of parallel programming. The program algorithms _always_ have to made parallel. The OS can't do it.
IBM said Sell not Cell. by Pinback · 2005-01-21 14:14 · Score: 2, Funny

It is all a big misundertanding between Sony and IBM.

IBM told Sony it was going to "Sell" its PC busines. Sony has been telling everyone about IBM's "Cell" PC ever since.

Seriously though: For all we know, the PS3 may have four cells. (One CPU core, and three "APU" cells.) One APU for the boobs, one APU for animated low polygon count "hair", and one for inane dialog.

Maybe the new splice() based pipes in Linux can be used to move data between APUs.

Ever notice how much in common the Gamecube and the Mac Mini have in common?