Monday, February 07, 2005 - Posts

Cell perspiration

Today’s announcement was really directed at Wall Street, there was no cell chip to demo in a room full of electrical engineers!

So many things can go wrong in chip development; IBM knows this as well as Intel does. Thomas Edison spoke of 1% inspiration 99% perspiration, but today that perspiration comes from weary investors.

If this chip and its new architecture works they will need to port it to Windows, Longhorn, Embedded and Mobile to make back the billions they have invested in development.

Cell processor


STI cell processor
Next generation processors

chip worker and disk
Just as the cells in a body unite to form complete physical systems, a "Cell" architecture will allow all kinds of electronic devices (from consumer products to supercomputers) to work together, signaling a new era in Internet entertainment, communications and collaboration.

The Vision:
Breakthrough microprocessor architecture that puts broadband communications right on the chip.

Markets:
·   Next-generation communications
·   Consumer multimedia applications

A team of IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba engineers has collaborated on development of the Cell microprocessor at a joint design center established in Austin, Texas, since March 2001. The prototype chip is 221 mm(2), integrates 234 million transistors, and is fabricated with 90 nanometer SOI technology.

Cell's breakthrough multi-core architecture and ultra high-speed communications capabilities deliver vastly improved, real-time response for entertainment and rich media applications, in many cases 10 times the performance of the latest PC processors.

Effectively a "supercomputer on a chip" incorporating advanced multi-processing technologies used in IBM's sophisticated servers, Sony Group's computer entertainment systems and Toshiba's advanced semiconductor technology, Cell will become the broadband processor used for industrial applications to the new digital home.

 Cell will suport multi-OS's with a multi-core for multi-media, but multi-questions will remain till we get to run this multi-breakthrough architectural design on our systems.