Slashdot Mirror
IBM Adds Videogame Console Chips to Mainframes
GoIBMPS3 writes "Soon the powerful 'Cell' microprocessor that fuels Sony's PlayStation 3 console will be available in IBM mainframe computers. The intent is to allow high-performance machines to run complex online games and virtual worlds. 'The integration initially will be accomplished by networking the mainframe with IBM's Cell blades, but eventually the Cells will be plugged more directly into the mainframes via PCI adapter cards, IBM said. It's the latest twist in IBM's years-long effort to keep mainframes not only relevant but also cutting-edge. IBM is touting the partnership as an example of hybrid computing--a trend sweeping the high-performance computing industry as companies augment general-purpose servers with special-purpose chips that to accelerate particular tasks.'"
IBM scrapped a wii-mote enabled server consoles for the management of online worlds.
However the prototype was destroyed in a freak bowling/mountain dew/pizza accident.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Someday, in the future, a computer the size of a small room will be possible!
And it will be as powerful as today's most advanced videogames...
I have a JCL script for a character I've been working on for months. He has five hundred hit points, six spells, a sword, a long sword, a battle axe, a print spool, and a suite of DB2 utilities.
Pay for shipping and I'll send you the punch cards.
IT productivity took a plunge today on this announcement as millions of IT professionals stopped work dead in their tracks and began day-dreaming of the "after-hours" activities that they could get involved in.
More news at 11.
IBM Adds Videogame Console Chips to Mainframes
The Cell is no more a console chip than the x86 (used in XBox) or the PowerPC (used in the 360). Yes, it is used in a console, but I hate to see such a powerful chip "type-cast" to the console. I'm glad IBM is cutting the Cell loose by actually using it for something other than console gaming. However, I wish they would have used a better example than "Virtual Worlds" for its uses. Something like Medical Imaging, 3D Rendering or even Weather Forecasting would have been so much better towards breaking the Cell from its gaming niche.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
IBM isn't the first or last to come up with the idea behind the CELL processor. With the advent of programmable shaders, the GPU industry was headed that way like a freight train. When people started using these highly pipelined, highly parallel SIMD stream processors that we know as GPUs to do supercomputing, people with a clue took notice and decided that it would be sensible to strip out the video components and generalize the compute engine. However, this kind of compute engine only works well for stream processing, requiring some kind of general-purpose CPU to supervise. And this is exactly what the CELL processor is: A PowerPC supervising the operation of an array of stream processors.
So, while the CELL is inspired by GPU design, I think it would be more appropriate to say that CELL is a supercomputing architecture that, being what it is, is also highly suitable for graphics applications. As such, I think what the slashdot article says is silly. What IBM is doing is putting a supercomputing architecture into a mainframe. This isn't weird. It's sensible and a wise move, technically and competitively.
I always wanted to use a pickup truck to bring my rig to a LAN party.
(Actually, that's all bullshit. Don't play games, never been to a LAN party, don't know where to find one. But that's never stopped posting here before.)
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
That was my first thought too. Then I actually bothered to read the fricken' synopsis and realized that this was IBM's actual spin on it, and they were touting the cell-on-mainframe thing as a server for virtual worlds. It's still kind of a dumb spin, obviously geared for non technical types who may be decision makers on large MMORPG projects. IBM's thinking is probably that they will associate the cell processor with games and therefore feel it would be a good thing to use in running an MMORPG. Which it probably will be, as an MMORPG server is inherently a massively parallel application.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The Cell has never been intended solely to be a "game chip." It was always intended to be useful in large supercomputer type environments.
The Folding At Home client is an example of a large clustered-based application that uses the Cell as a math processor, as is the recent "real-time raytracing" demo. Both are applications of the Cell in a "mainframe" type environment.
So it's not surprising that IBM would be releasing Cell-based machines - that's been the plan all along. It was never intended just to be used in the PS3.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
A machine that *might* be able to handle Aero.
The best hobbyist platform is definitely the PS3. Linux runs great on it and HDMI->DVI adaptors let you use it with a DVI monitor (we run them at 1920x1600 on Dell 24" LCDs). As long as PS3s are in the $500-600 price range, there's no real incentive for another low-cost Cell platform. Of course, access to the graphics pipeline is limited, but the SPUs are much easier to program and more flexible than GPUs for general purpose computation.
If you do bite the bullet and go with a PS3, we've developed a Python library -- CorePy -- for programming the SPUs (and PPU) directly. It replaces assembly/intrinsics with Python function calls and provides components for building and optimzing SPU programs. It takes the sting out of using the C-based tools and gives you more flexibility with how you use the SPUs.
-Chris
That's ok - the PS3 designers didn't devote much memory to the Cell processors either.
the only reason people still use the AS/400 or any other IBM mainframe
An AS/400 is a midrange, not a mainframe. Despite having a large span of scalability, the AS/400 only overlaps the bottom end of the mainframe in performance.
Also, the reasons people buy AS/400's and mainframes are as follows:
Extremely high reliability and security
Performance and scalability
Protection of software investment
justify scrapping for something modern
Do you realize that the AS400 hardware and operating system is more "modern" than Unix? Did you realize that the as400 hardware and operating system have key features that other OS's lack today but most people are moving that direction? Do some research on security and the as400, for example.
the AS/400 or iSeries as it's been renamed, could be replaced in a heartbeat by a LAMP server with an AJAX frontend for 1% of the cost.
Have you ever seen an AS/400 that required even an operator? High end, sure, but small to medium business the controller puts in the backup tape and that's about it. Hardware/software, you're right, but unless you include support salaries then you are comparing apples to oranges, although you could make the exact same argument about Sun/Oracle being more expensive than LAMP.
You can create new servers on the fly,
Really high performance
Easily scalable,
and virtual worlds will never go down for any reason outside the code.
Don't forget these added bonuses:
So expensive you could buy an entire data center's worth of x86 servers instead of leasing a single mainframe for a year.
Requires members of the dwindling cult of mainframe experts to administer.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman