Maybe true. The ones with full brains wouldn't have to be working for a living because they'd have retired at 21 a millionaire, and now have nothing better to do than apt-get update; apt-get upgrade and recompile their kernel
Purely vectors though? More complex AI routines will surely require more than basic vector work - and although physics is vector intensive, PowerPC didn't suddenly become weak at vectors, but the SPEs simply won't be doing anything else. If they have to hand back to the core CPU every time they come up against something that they can't accomplish, then it's still not looking particularly efficient. I'd assume that most of the work used by games will simply be for graphical effects, work on textures, etc.
I'm not convinced of this tradeoff, certainly for anything besides gaming and video work, and I'll certainly be waiting for benchmarks before even considering whether it's of any use in a workstation. Apple certainly didn't seem to think so. The more I read of the core CPU the weaker it sounds.
Why in Gods name would any Mac user with half a brain switch to Linux? It's so diametrically opposed to the whole ethos of the minimal maintenance, maximum throughput that even switching to Windows makes more sense.
No, a Power5 is basically (apart from some other irrelevant changes) defined as a hyperthreading Power4. The CPU core of the Cell does not have this feature to my knowledge.
You fell for the hype, I'm afraid. Read the specs properly: 1.8 of those "Sonyflops" were attributed to the graphics card - this is not entirely outside the bounds of what graphics cards are expected to be doing in a years time. You can't use them to run an operating system on though. Much of the rest of the "Sonyflops" are assigned to the SPE's (which as you should now notice, don't hold a candle to a GPU). Suddenly, the PS3 is very normal.
This is nonsense. Xbox360 will have three full processing cores for Cell's one. Anything that needs any more than floating point calculation will be lapped up by the Xbox360's CPU, while the Cell is struggling. This includes physics and AI. It's interesting to note that all three manufacturers are still using a seperate graphics solution, so overall performance will not simply be defined by the CPU (a look at Doom 3 on the Xbox vs. the PC should explain that better).
Also, TSMC, and not IBM, will be producing the CPU for Xbox360. PowerPC != IBM.
Nintendo have not even announced what kind of CPU they will be using in the Revolution, but given the hardware size, it's questionable as to whether it can possibly be as powerful as the triple-core Xbox360 CPU.
I haven't seen it mentioned whether the Cell has an Altivec extension set, and if not, then it's really like a lobotomised POWER4 instead, but I suppose the SPEs should make up for most of that.
Not much else to use the SPE's for though now is there? Certainly a lot less than even a company who actually knows how to exercise subprocessors, like Apple, to bother with.
It's as much about laptops as anything else - AMD simply don't have the track record in portable devices.
It should be pointed out that just because the development systems aren't ground-up 64 bit machines, doesn't mean the eventual hardware won't be. I doubt Apple will be launching in 2007 with old Pentium 4's.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been to AMD Dresden. You can't build that in two years ;)
Unfortunately, I fear step 5 is within the loop construct.
I don't think you're a credible source on MS.
But that's only half the equation. A low powered chipset is also required, which AMD just don't deliver anymore.
Maybe true. The ones with full brains wouldn't have to be working for a living because they'd have retired at 21 a millionaire, and now have nothing better to do than apt-get update; apt-get upgrade and recompile their kernel
I'm not convinced of this tradeoff, certainly for anything besides gaming and video work, and I'll certainly be waiting for benchmarks before even considering whether it's of any use in a workstation. Apple certainly didn't seem to think so. The more I read of the core CPU the weaker it sounds.
Why in Gods name would any Mac user with half a brain switch to Linux? It's so diametrically opposed to the whole ethos of the minimal maintenance, maximum throughput that even switching to Windows makes more sense.
No, a Power5 is basically (apart from some other irrelevant changes) defined as a hyperthreading Power4. The CPU core of the Cell does not have this feature to my knowledge.
You fell for the hype, I'm afraid. Read the specs properly: 1.8 of those "Sonyflops" were attributed to the graphics card - this is not entirely outside the bounds of what graphics cards are expected to be doing in a years time. You can't use them to run an operating system on though. Much of the rest of the "Sonyflops" are assigned to the SPE's (which as you should now notice, don't hold a candle to a GPU). Suddenly, the PS3 is very normal.
With a load of substandard, poorly functionally emulated, bloated copies of quality commerical software offerings. No thanks.
So it may well have a low IPC value?
Also, TSMC, and not IBM, will be producing the CPU for Xbox360. PowerPC != IBM.
Nintendo have not even announced what kind of CPU they will be using in the Revolution, but given the hardware size, it's questionable as to whether it can possibly be as powerful as the triple-core Xbox360 CPU.
I haven't seen it mentioned whether the Cell has an Altivec extension set, and if not, then it's really like a lobotomised POWER4 instead, but I suppose the SPEs should make up for most of that.
Not much else to use the SPE's for though now is there? Certainly a lot less than even a company who actually knows how to exercise subprocessors, like Apple, to bother with.
But the ultimate end components, Windows XP and OS X, are more competent in use than the considered route, so what's the problem?
It should be pointed out that just because the development systems aren't ground-up 64 bit machines, doesn't mean the eventual hardware won't be. I doubt Apple will be launching in 2007 with old Pentium 4's.
However, Steve Jobs finally saw through their lies.
x87? A floating point daughter CPU?
Allard said the new Xbox kernel is a port of the old Xbox kernel - they are not maintaining a full PPC fork.
On the contrary, many will be free to download
If they are, they'd be held by Nvidia/ATi and usage would be thoroughly encouraged :)
Speaks volumes about the gameplay...
Bears shit in the woods, the Pope wears a funny hat, and in Soviet Russia, Open Source Exploits IT Giants!
Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the PC gaming market shrinks every year, as even Microsoft shift focus to games consoles.
My Debian machine isn't Internet-facing anyway, do you think I'm crazy?