I just read an article done by realtech news on Cell processor. If Cell processor is about 10 times more powerful then any of ours computer, than how come there is no plan of moving Cell into the market?
I know that for one Cell processors are very very difficult to yield. Sony has to turn off 1 of the 8 cores to get an acceptable yield.
The 7 "SPE" units are not CPUs. It is not a "7 core" processor. The SPEs are in fact quite limited in their functionality. They can only perform single-precision floating point calculations, and must be fed by the main CPU. If the CPU can't keep them fed, they'll go to waste. Most computing functions (AI, physics, and even graphics rendering) are not suitable for the SPEs. The one area they excel in is multimedia decoding/encoding - for example, decoding HD video streams. PC's do not run off of this sort of architecture. If you put something such as this into a PC at this point then you would have nothing short of a P4 with hyperthreading. Do not let yourself get fooled by false hopes from the company who is making this CPU...(which is actually IBM in a sense and not sony) This may be a step in the right direction for later down the road (like 5 - 7 years from now), but at this point and time real world computers most likely would not only not boast any performance gains from this arch, but in theory...my theory that is, we would see a real world decrease in performance. It is yet to be seen how the processor will really pan out in the long run. Hope this helps...just my two cents! Im sure someone else may feel different!
The 7 "SPE" units are not CPUs. It is not a "7 core" processor. The SPEs are in fact quite limited in their functionality. They can only perform single-precision floating point calculations, and must be fed by the main CPU. If the CPU can't keep them fed, they'll go to waste. Most computing functions (AI, physics, and even graphics rendering) are not suitable for the SPEs. The one area they excel in is multimedia decoding/encoding
It seems from that description that they could possibly be used as a coprocessor for specialized type workstations or media systems. Anything to speed up HD encoding would be welcome.
I have read several times about plans making PCs with Cell, while workstations and servers are already available. Its only the matter of time IMO. Some distributions of Linux can run Cell just fine, as seen in PS3. Actualy you can buy PS3 and make "PC" out of it
I am attending a 16 hour seminar/course on Project Management, and it's conducted by one of the project manager from IBM, and she mentioned that she's working with a group who's in charge of the Cell Processors, they are actually working on it to be implemented to PC. At the current moment, Cell is only powering PS3, and they're working to try to implement it to PC and many other hardwares as well. It is still considered early stage for Cell Processors, so there's still a lot of potential, that's according to this project manager from IBM.
I just read an article done by realtech news on Cell processor. If Cell processor is about 10 times more powerful then any of ours computer, than how come there is no plan of moving Cell into the market?
I know that for one Cell processors are very very difficult to yield. Sony has to turn off 1 of the 8 cores to get an acceptable yield.
Any contribution by anyone is gratefully accepted
Well i think it's a comparison of apples and oranges. It may be 10x more powerful at some things but it was designed with those things in mind.
If you are building a cpu for a games console you are going to make sure it has good floating point abilities.
That said, I won't take anything away from the cell, i expect it's a very good processor. It would nice to see some benchmarks of it doing normal stuff?
In my opinion it might be possable in a year or so. I just installed YDL 5.0 and the PS3 functions just like a computer. It even recognizes the PS3 controller as an input device. I am just starting to work on porting over a Windows homebrew game from anouther community. the hyperadvsor does not allow any acceleration yet but I can see that changing. The most recent firmware update 1.6 from sony had the bootloader added which was great since you did not require it to be downloaded from a memory stick. I see a few firmwares down the line them adding the hyperadvisor to allow acceleration access in YDL.
To make it like a desktop or laptop you would a motherboard designed from scratch with enough memory and catch. I don't know but it might be possable to code an SPE to act like additional catch for a specfic application.
My 4000 san diego, 2 gigs and a en7800gtx is faster currently on loading and stuff. But it is still early on. Folding would take allot longer on my Sandy then on my PS3 so they did a good coding job on that.
I just read an article done by realtech news on Cell processor. If Cell processor is about 10 times more powerful then any of ours computer, than how come there is no plan of moving Cell into the market?
I know that for one Cell processors are very very difficult to yield. Sony has to turn off 1 of the 8 cores to get an acceptable yield.
Any contribution by anyone is gratefully accepted
oh god... another kid trying to get somewhere.
google please!
10 times more powerful in what? calculating numbers? very expensive calculator.
The 7 "SPE" units are not CPUs. It is not a "7 core" processor. The SPEs are in fact quite limited in their functionality. They can only perform single-precision floating point calculations, and must be fed by the main CPU. If the CPU can't keep them fed, they'll go to waste. Most computing functions (AI, physics, and even graphics rendering) are not suitable for the SPEs. The one area they excel in is multimedia decoding/encoding
It seems from that description that they could possibly be used as a coprocessor for specialized type workstations or media systems. Anything to speed up HD encoding would be welcome.
I guess we weren't the only people thinking about the possibilities:
