A teraflop in a game console by 2005? It looks like a dream. But this is what IBM, Sony and Toshiba expect to deliver by 2005.
Details are still fuzzy since the original announcement by IBM in March 2001. You can read what they said here.
I told you about this chip on April 8, 2002 in "The Trio Tackling Tomorrow's Chips."
Now, let's read what John G. Spooner has to say.
The new multimedia processor, touted as a "supercomputer on a chip," is well on the way to completion, IBM says. The chip could end up inside the PlayStation 3, and elements of its design will be seen in future server chips from IBM.
Cell has nearly "taped out"--an industry term meaning that the chip's pen and paper design and layout have been completed. Commercial production of Cell could come as soon as the end of 2004.
While details remain vague, Cell will differ from existing microprocessors in that it will have multiple personalities. The chip will not only perform the heavy computational tasks required for graphics, but it also will contain circuitry to handle high-bandwidth communication and to run multiple devices, sources say.
While the processor's design is still under wraps, the companies say Cell's capabilities will allow it to deliver one trillion calculations per second (teraflop) or more of floating-point calculations.
Cell will likely use between four and 16 general-purpose processor cores per chip. A game console might use a chip with 16 cores, while a less complicated device like a set-top box would have a processor with fewer, said Peter Glaskowsky, editor in chief of influential industry newsletter Microprocessor Report. Some of these cores might perform computational functions, while others could control audio or graphics.
If the hardware part looks difficult to achieve, think about the software necessary to use this chip efficiently and successfully.
What kind of OS? proprietary or not?
What applications will be available to use simultaneously 16 processors?
Remember that even if companies are using large multiprocessor systems these days, most of them are using these computers as a collection of monoprocessor units.
Source: John G. Spooner, ZDNet News, August 6, 2002; and other reports
5:59:03 PM
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