IBM Plans to Open the Cell Processor

morcheeba writes "According to an EETimes article, IBM is planning on releasing the full specifications and software libraries for the powerful processor that will be in the Playstation 3. The goal is to stimulate open-source development for other applications of the chip. The article doesn't mention if there will be some affordable development systems for all these programmers -- I'm hoping for a ps3 devkit." From the article: "IBM is eager to find other opportunities for Cell, but it's going to take a lot of software work...Going to the open-source community makes sense, because they could attract a lot of pretty smart programmers who could spin out software and applications for Cell."

Comments

Re:the real question

[nadamsieee]

From TFA:

The trio is almost done with an application binary interface and language extensions for Cell. A system-level simulator is also nearly complete. Yet to come is a full-fledged Linux implementation for the CPU.

So it sounds like IBM is working on porting Linux to it.

Sony must have approved this

[John Seminal]

how does Sony feel about this?

Sony must have given its approval for releasing this information. It could not happen without them.

If Sony did not know, and IBM made this move without their approval, I could see Sony NEVER buying from IBM again. That is too big a risk for IBM. Heck, most companies would think twice.

Will it be easier to make a mod chip if people know how the processor works? Or did Sony add their DRM elsewhere? Who knows. IBM is not releasing the blueprints for the Playstation 3, just the processor.

Sony is a big company that hires smart people. Maybe they figured out hiding the electronics will not prevent reverse engineering. Maybe the new PS3 has some technology that makes it difficult to mod.

Maybe this is like Microsofts WMV, it is unhackable, nobody can get it to play a stream if DRM v9 is enabled. Not one person on the planet. And it has been over a year now.

For the PS3, they don't need for their game machine to be unhackable forever, just until the PS4 comes out. :)

Re:Interesting

[morcheeba]

... not every processor is documented. In fact, the documentation for a lot of high volume processors isn't available. I'd like PSP docs, or docs on the processor in the ipod, or even the processor in the disposable digital cameras or the VMU game system -- but none of these docs are publicly available. The hardware manual for the G5 PowerPC was finally published last November, over a year after apple started selling the hardware.

So, no, the documentation doesn't always get released.

Re:Linux anyone?

[zdzichu]

Already done! Linux supports Cell processor since May 13.

OpenCores

[jd]

Open Cores is a site that aims to do for hardware what Sourceforge did for software. They have a good collection of processors, memory chips, network and other I/O devices, etc.

I've got my own project on there, in a bid to develop a totally parallel OO-based processor, but not had much time to work on that recently.

Those interested in Open Hardware should visit this and similar sites, to see what is happening out there, whether or not they believe the idea could work in practice. Why? Because it is an excellent source of ideas, and ideas are what keep all the IT markets moving.

What else?

[mnmn]

What else is out there anyway? The main contenders are PPC and Intel. Both Intel and AMD produce x86/64 chips only. Sure everyone also produces arm/strongarm chips, but theyre still weak, the fastest strongarm from Intel is used on higher end PDAs.

Whats left is MIPS, Ultrasparc, PA-RISC, Alpha and special purpose FPGA chips.

MIPS is dead. SGI was producing servers on Itanium which also died.

Ultrasparc is dying in favor of x64. Sun guards its IP jealously. Low throughput but high floating and thread performance.

PA-RISC gives the best bang for the MHz. Good float, everything else runs too hot for now. Old old architecture.

Alpha was killed by HP. They'll try to sell you Itanium or PARISC before they sell you an Alpha. Development on it has completely stopped since 21264c. And I mean COMPLETELY.

FPGA chips are less efficient, and better use an ARM than an fpga chip.

So the two champions are PPC (and its derivative, Cell) and x86/x64.

Architecturally, PPC, and a 64-bit-only x64 are efficient. But IBM has been trying to push PPC in the market, working hard on a grand plan to take the market dominance away from x86. Look at all their offerings for Linux on PPC. They're prepping up this combination against wintel... and any usage of PPC means profits for them and Motorola, mostly to IBM in the higher end.

The choice is rather easy. If you will not use an IBM chip for a higher-end game console, what will you choose?