IBM to "open" up the Cell (Arstechnica)

[ifjake]

IBM to "open" up the Cell

interesting little quip from my favorite tech news site on the entire web.

i'm especially interested in this exerpt: Instead, IBM has set up a team in its engineering services division to help others custom-design versions of Cell that could be made in IBM's fabs..." and the possible implications this has for Apple. i've heard a lot of people shout something like "IBM making cell? Stick it in a Macintosh!!!" and then the rebuttle "but there's no altivec/vector engine (or something technical like that)!! it'll never work!!" this "opening up" adds a new twist to the speculation. should be interesting.

 

[blitzkrieg79]

Well, I have been reading about the entire CELL concept for a while and people seem to misunderstand the concept, CELL is not one processor, its more of an idea of architecture, to have a main PPE unit and attach independent vector units (SPUs) around it... I am more than sure that Apple/IBM are already working on a hybrid version of the CELL-like processor for a Mac that wont require a whole lot of code rewriting, just mabe some optimizations...
It makes financial sense as CELL is already here so IBM can use whatever it has learned from the CELL design and make a CELL-like processor for Apple, they won't have to invest all the R&D money into a totally new processor where they already have some kind of a common ground already set up...
People say that Cells parallel structure will make it hard to code and recomplie and such but then again technology always changes and we wont use the same programming techniques for the rest of computers existance, it always changes, there is always evolution, it seems that all the current processor architectures have staled recently, so maybe its time to rethink the entire processor designs along with different programming techniques...
And IBM seems to be willing to share the CELL technology with others...

 

[Abstract]

Is it IBM's to "open up"?? Don't Toshiba and Sony have a say in who gets to use the tech?

 

[Veldek]

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128578