Abilities of the cell in PS3

[cooldude]

well i hope u know that SPEs can ahndle vertex processing, so does that mean that the cell in he ps3 can take some of the vertex load on the cpu?

thanx

 

[Action_Man]

Yes it can. Although that would be near pointless. If it had xenos rather then RSX it could be quite useful..

 

[zarooch]

Hey... tell me cell ain't good than a cpu? if cell had more cache? i'm not getting anything good abt cell... wots the real thing?

 

[jkflipflop98]

I demand you remove that Intel logo from your profile immediatly.

 

[sepuko]

I demand you remove that Intel logo from your profile immediatly.

I demand all stupid people to stop posting here.

 

[sandmannight]

you should all ask nicely.

 

[K8MAN]

well i hope u know that SPEs can ahndle vertex processing, so does that mean that the cell in he ps3 can take some of the vertex load on the cpu?

thanx

I am having serious doubts about cell being anything special in the PS3. It has to do so many things at once that the single single threaded performance will suffer. Everything has to be lined up in a certain order for cell in order for it to show its power and the random nature of game code.(assumtion taken from my observations of the P4 and its incredible theortectical power compared to it's real-world performance)
Cell is all hype. I remember a few years ago when it was first mentioned and they were talking about "self-healing technology" and giving us networks of cell processesors that would solve all of the world's problems and all that BS.

 

[theaxemaster]

Hey... tell me cell ain't good than a cpu? if cell had more cache? i'm not getting anything good abt cell... wots the real thing?

Did anyone besides me find it funny that the guy with the intel logo wants to just add more cache to try to fix a problem?

 

[Action_Man]

The SPEs have local storage rather then cache and they run sh!t slow if they can't fit what they're processing into the local storage. So it'd probably help, initally they only had 128k and they bumped it up to 256k.

 

[Heyyou27]

Did anyone besides me find it funny that the guy with the intel logo wants to just add more cache to try to fix a problem?

:lol:

The Cell will be a horrible gaming processor.

 

[Caboose-1]

Why does Sony always have to put extremely proprietary crap into their consoles so it takes developers about until Sony releases a new console to get all they can out of it? I've given up on Sony, I'm a XBOX person.

 

[Heyyou27]

One general purpose core with a 50 stage pipeline? :?

 

[Caboose-1]

One general purpose core with a 50 stage pipeline? :?

No no, not in terms of hardware do I prefer XBOX, its the games that sell me for a console...... Which is why I have all of them. It makes me laugh when all these noobs start arguing on which console is better. Ha! I say to them. Games are what make a console.

 

[Action_Man]

One general purpose core with a 50 stage pipeline?

Um try ~20.

 

[Caboose-1]

One general purpose core with a 50 stage pipeline?

Um try ~20.zOMG lIEK pWNT!!!111!11

 

[k2000k]

I remember reading an article on ars technica awhile ago about programing for the cell processor. During that time the programmer said that the PS3 did not exist and all games being programmed for it had to be run on computers, most of what was written was a lament about how FUBAR the whole process was. The reason the cell processor will be dissapointing will be because it is a largely new technology. For the most part console dont really push the envelope, not like computer hardware. The revolution, I refuse to call it wii, is revolutionary, but not because of the hardware but because of implimentation. Sony tried to be revolutionary, and so they are stuffing the cell processor along with blu-ray down our throat. By and large I am very luke warm towards Sony. Especially when I can get games I like better on xbox 360.

Call of Duty 2
Ghost Recon Advanced warrior
Splinter Cell Double agent-sometime in the future
Halo 3-sometime in the future.
Gears of War-some time in the future

 

[Heyyou27]

Last I heard the power PC core they use has 50, although I could be wrong.

 

[Caboose-1]

I remember reading an article on ars technica awhile ago about programing for the cell processor. During that time the programmer said that the PS3 did not exist and all games being programmed for it had to be run on computers, most of what was written was a lament about how FUBAR the whole process was. The reason the cell processor will be dissapointing will be because it is a largely new technology. For the most part console dont really push the envelope, not like computer hardware. The revolution, I refuse to call it wii, is revolutionary, but not because of the hardware but because of implimentation. Sony tried to be revolutionary, and so they are stuffing the cell processor along with blu-ray down our throat. By and large I am very luke warm towards Sony. Especially when I can get games I like better on xbox 360.

Call of Duty 2 {and don't forget COD 3(Caboose added this)}
Ghost Recon Advanced warrior
Splinter Cell Double agent-sometime in the future
Halo 3-sometime in the future.
Gears of War-some time in the future

Your a man after my own heart. ~Father Gregory, Half-Life 2

 

[Action_Man]

Last I heard the power PC core they use has 50, although I could be wrong.

You are wrong. Xenon and the PPE cores are 21 stages. 50 is ridiculous, prescott was only 31.

 

[nottheking]

well i hope u know that SPEs can ahndle vertex processing, so does that mean that the cell in he ps3 can take some of the vertex load on the cpu?

thanx

Pretty much any CPU can handle vertex data; in modern 3D engines, all they really need is 32-bit floating-point capability, something that's been around for ages.

However, how EFFECTIVE such a solution will be can vary; typically, vertex processing is a four-dimensional task, so for a single-unit scalar processor, that works out to four clock cycles a vertex pass, at best. (likewise, this COULD be handled by a four-wide vector instruction, which is how it's done on GPUs)

However, I really think that trying to offload geometry work to the CPU is a moot point anyway, since that's what the GPU's supposed to have been doing since 1999, when nVidia introduced the "Hardware T&L engine." (now better known as a "vertex shader")

Um try ~20.

Is the PPE in the "Cell" that tightly designed? I've had crap luck trying to find information on this, but I thought that the P4 Williamete/Northwood were 24-stage, and the infamous Prescott was 31-stage, and the Xenon was a whopping 34-stage. I'm probably horrifically wrong, though. With luck, this post might actually net me a link to the real facts here.

 

[shinigamiX]

If they had about 50 pipeline stages, wouldn't they be clocked much higher?

 

[Caboose-1]

well i hope u know that SPEs can ahndle vertex processing, so does that mean that the cell in he ps3 can take some of the vertex load on the cpu?

thanx

Pretty much any CPU can handle vertex data; in modern 3D engines, all they really need is 32-bit floating-point capability, something that's been around for ages.

However, how EFFECTIVE such a solution will be can vary; typically, vertex processing is a four-dimensional task, so for a single-unit scalar processor, that works out to four clock cycles a vertex pass, at best. (likewise, this COULD be handled by a four-wide vector instruction, which is how it's done on GPUs)

However, I really think that trying to offload geometry work to the CPU is a moot point anyway, since that's what the GPU's supposed to have been doing since 1999, when nVidia introduced the "Hardware T&L engine." (now better known as a "vertex shader")

Um try ~20.

Is the PPE in the "Cell" that tightly designed? I've had crap luck trying to find information on this, but I thought that the P4 Williamete/Northwood were 24-stage, and the infamous Prescott was 31-stage, and the Xenon was a whopping 34-stage. I'm probably horrifically wrong, though. With luck, this post might actually net me a link to the real facts here. 8O Are you patronizing him?

 

[nottheking]

You are wrong. Xenon and the PPE cores are 21 stages. 50 is ridiculous, prescott was only 31.

I guess that means I'm half-right. It also shows what I get for not checking the posts made while I write...

If they had about 50 pipeline stages, wouldn't they be clocked much higher?

Perhaps not, if it was that the transistors were particularly slow. Then the increased pipeline length might be necessary to achieve such clock rates in the first place.

8O Are you patronizing him?

That's not what I originally intended, though it might look like that to some... :lol:

 

[Ycon]

Well, 3.2 GHz is an incredibly high clockspeed for the Cell so it might have quite a few stages, but I doubt it has 50.