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Toshiba Demonstrates Cell Microprocessor

Posted by Hemos on from the using-the-machine dept.

Cybro writes "Toshiba has demonstrated some cool applications for the Cell Microprocessor. They also revealed that they have written their own OS for the new processor. However the article on TechOn does not reveal the license of the OS."

6 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. fpj by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    fj

  2. article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Toshiba Demonstrates Cell Microprocessor Simultaneously Decoding 48 MPEG-2 Streams

    Apr 25, 2005

    Toshiba demonstrated that its Cell microprocessor, jointly developed with the Sony Group and IBM Corp., can simultaneously decode 48 SDTV format MPEG-2 streams. At the COOL Chips VIII event held in Yokohama from April 20 to 22, 2005, the company showed a film demonstrating the decoding process.

    In the film, 48 MPEG-2 streams stored on a HDD were read, decoded and projected onto a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display divided into 8 x 6 cells, each of which showed a different video in each cell. The company expects the technology to be used to display thumbnails for a video list. Of the eight synergistic processor elements (SPE) used in the Cell, six are used for decoding 48 MPEG-2 streams and one is used for scaling the screen. The remaining SPE can be used for a completely different processing function.

    In the demonstration, Toshiba used an operating system environment it had developed to increase the efficiency of Cell software development. One of the environment's key features is that application software developers can program software without considering which threads will be allotted to each of the different SPEs, because the environment allows the automatically scheduling software to SPEs.

  3. From the screenshot in the article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    ... their OS looks a lot like Windows Media Player.

  4. Cell runs XP? by glrotate · · Score: -1, Redundant

    The screenshot is clearly Windows Media Player 9 or 10. Cool.

    xp4evah!

  5. Thats Windows OS WMP by shyampandit · · Score: -1, Redundant

    That definitely is WMP, so it would be the Windows OS...

    Windows aint that bad after all

  6. OS? by brontus3927 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Anyone else notice that the OS that Toshiba wrote is playing Windows Media Player 9 Series, unless there is a WMP9 skin for mplayer or similar and Toshiba's OS is a *nix derivative.

    --
    Free MacMini