IBM's chip shift to blunt Apple effect

Marketwatch ^ | June 6, 2005 7:07 PM ET | John Shinal & Matt Andrejczak, MarketWatch

[Terpfen]

That right now is huge, just that means millions will be shipped.

PS3 is bigger for the Blu-Ray format than it is for the Cell. What else will the Cell be used in? Not much, as of yet.

BTW, the processor in the upcoming XBox is IBM, and a close cousin to the Cell.

The Cell has nothing to do with the PowerPC. Completely separate technology branch.

The next Nintendo will also use a related IBM chip.

Xbox360 and the Revolution both use standard PowerPCs, yes, and the GameCube uses the PowerPC as well. We're talking about the Cell here.

[antiRepublicrat]

PS3 is bigger for the Blu-Ray format than it is for the Cell. What else will the Cell be used in? Not much, as of yet.

The fact that Toshiba is a Cell partner, and has already demonstrated a Cell pushing multiple video streams with insane efficiency, shows that the Cell will appear widely in various consumer video devices. Sony is also a partner and makes consumer video devices. Figure it out. Cell is the new DSP.

It's also shown potential in supercomputing, but I don't know how well that will take off.

The Cell has nothing to do with the PowerPC. Completely separate technology branch.

The head node of the cell is essentially an early PowerPC.

Xbox360 and the Revolution both use standard PowerPCs, yes

Read on the XBox more. IBM isn't keeping Cell technology completely within the Cell line.

[Terpfen]

Figure it out. Cell is the new DSP.

No, it's not. Not yet. Besides use in the PS3, the trio of Sony, Toshiba, and IBM have no idea what to do with the Cell. Note IBM's recent opening of the Cell's architecture--intended to fish for ideas from third parties.

The head node of the cell is essentially an early PowerPC.

This is different from it being a PPC family member. I have no doubt that IBM used some of their technology base from the PPC to get the Cell going, but it's intellectually dishonest to claim the Cell as a part of the PPC line, just as it would be to claim that AMD is a part of Intel simply because AMD chips use SSE and SSE2.

[antiRepublicrat]

No, it's not. Not yet. Besides use in the PS3, the trio of Sony, Toshiba, and IBM have no idea what to do with the Cell.

Anything to do with video. They have big plans for digital content creation.

This is different from it being a PPC family member. I have no doubt that IBM used some of their technology base from the PPC to get the Cell going, but it's intellectually dishonest to claim the Cell as a part of the PPC line

You'll notice the 64-bit PPC running the cells. Each cell is a lot like a PPC 601, except that it's geared towards vector processing (vector ALUs instead of fixed-point ALUs) and has local memory instead of an L1 cache. So, basically, the Cell is a repackaging of the PPC line, and indeed going back to the basics of RISC that the PPC line was founded on.

[Terpfen]

Anything to do with video. They have big plans for digital content creation.

The only hinting any of the three companies have done regarding video involves Toshiba's demonstration of the Cell decoding 42 SDTV signals, and the initial speculation that Cell CPUs would be included in multiple devices to create a distributed computing network. We don't know anything concrete, so it's a stretch to claim the Cell is going to be something big.

You'll notice the 64-bit PPC running the cells.

You'll notice the Cell's modularity, allowing that 64-bit PPC to be replaced. Like I said, IBM used some PPC technological concepts, but the final product is decided not a PPC family member.