IBM's CELL Processor: Preview to Greatness?

[simie]

BM's CELL Processor: Preview to Greatness?

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1727

I wonder what they are using to cool the cell cpu with?

Sounds like DDR is out of the window with the Cell because it needs XDR ram.

Here is the specs for XDR ram

http://www.rambus.com/products/xdr/512_prod.cfm

 

[Lacero]

Gawd, I hope its not another Transmeta.

 

[simie]

It must be a fairly cheap cpu to produce because gamers won't pay the sort of money mac users pay for G5's.

I can't imagine that the Playstation 3 is going be priced above £399 - sorry don't know what that would be in dollars. If it is then you have either got money to throw away (in which case throw in my direction) or you are a very dedicated gamer.

I would have thought that this is a CPU for HDTV - and the like, it would be interesting of it could be implemented inside a computer - I rekon it will be used on graphic cards.

 

[simie]

Here is a link to IBM's website that gives brief details about Cell Workstation and may gives clues to what the PS3 is capable of.

http://www-03.ibm.com/chips/news/2004/0511_cell.html


http://www.ibm.com/news/us/2004/11/2004_11_30.html

This does indicate a cell workstation is under devlopement.

It does state that Sony will be realeasing details this month about the processor.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

The Cell 'hype' seems more and more like the 'Gobi' hype a couple of years ago: the promise of a fantastic fast and cool G3 (the PowerPC 750GX) chip perfect for portables, especially the iBooks, which at the time still were G3. But as the chip took a while, the iBooks instead went G4 (which I actually bought, but that's another story).

Don't get me wrong, the Cell looks to be a fantastic processor, but until I see any real evidence that the next generation Macs actually will be Cell-based (and the article doesn't even speculate into that option) I prefer not to get my hopes too high. Don't feel like another long walk in the desert...

Edit: New information from this thread has gotten my hopes back up...

 

[simie]

This following is under copyright but it does state -The ISSCC 2005 Press Kit is open to the general public.

We are the general public - if you the moderators feel that this link should be removed please remove it.

http://www.isscc.org/isscc/2005/press/

Read the Press Kit

Very interesting

Cell Processor

DUAL-CORE ITDUAL-CORE ITANIUM® Expands level 3 cache to 24MB

3.1 megapixel CCD for mobile phones

FIRST COMMERCIALLYY-VIABLE 2GB DRAM

And the list goes on

article from ISSCC 2005