Ibm/Sony/Toshiba CELL

Nemesis11

Power Member
Hoje foram dados a conhecer os primeiros dados sobre o CELL. Mais informações dia 6 de fevereiro 2005

011bl.jpg


IBM, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Toshiba Unveil Cell Processor

Cell is optimized for compute-intensive workloads and broadband rich media
applications, including computer entertainment, movies and other forms of digital content.
Other highlights of the Cell processor design include:
• Multi-thread, multicore architecture.
• Supports multiple operating systems at the same time.
• Substantial bus bandwidth to/from main memory, as well as companion chips.
• Flexible on-chip I/O (input/output) interface.
• Real-time resource management system for real-time applications.
• On-chip hardware in support of security system for intellectual property protection.
• Implemented in 90 nanometer (nm) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.
Additionally, Cell uses custom circuit design to increase overall performance, while
supporting precise processor clock control to enable power savings.

IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba will disclose more details about Cell in four technical papers
scheduled for presentation at the International Solid State Circuits Conference.
“Less than four years ago, we embarked on an ambitious collaborative effort with Sony
Group and Toshiba to create a highly-integrated microprocessor designed to overcome imminent
transistor scaling, power and performance limitations in conventional technologies," said Dr. John
E. Kelly III, senior vice president, IBM. “Today, we're revealing just a sampling of what we
believe makes the innovative Cell processor a premiere open platform for next-generation
computing and entertainment products.”
http://www.gfdata.de/gamefront-temp/sonycell1.pdf

IBM, SONY AND SCEI POWER-ON CELL PROCESSOR-BASED WORKSTATION
PROTOTYPE


The prototype workstation is the first computing application planned for the highlyanticipated
Cell processor.
The companies expect that a one rack Cell processor-based workstation will reach a
performance of 16 teraflops or trillions of floating point calculations per second.


“The supercomputer-like processing and performance of the Cell processorbased
workstation is just the beginning of what we expect will be a wide-range of powerful nextgeneration
solutions resulting from our joint development efforts.”
http://www.gfdata.de/gamefront-temp/sonycell2.pdf

Mais links:
http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/
http://www.eet.com/semi/news/showAr...QSNDBCCKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleId=54200580&pgno=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/t...n=cbba2839fd80203e&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/1129/cell.htm
http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/news/2004/11/29/011.html

"Current PC architecture is nearing its limits," - Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment

http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2004/11/29/ap1677869.html



16 Tflops.........
Comentarios?
 
SideWalker disse:
85ºC??? A PS3 vai ter watercolling?

Como o Cell não vai ser só utilizado na PS3, provavelmente vai ser uma versão que seja "compativel" com o uso que se dá à PS3. Clock reduzido? Só em 0.065? Acho que nesta altura ninguem sabe.
Isto é o anuncio do CELL, não é da PS3. Tenham atenção a isso.

Mais uma noticia:
IBM has been working with Japanese electronics giants Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. for four years on a chip design, code-named "Cell," and is expected today to announce the chip will go into limited production next year and will be used in several consumer-product applications starting in 2006.

The products include high-definition television sets from Sony and Toshiba and a "home server for broadband content" from Sony, the three companies are expected to announce jointly. Cell also is expected to be the brains of the next generation of Sony's popular PlayStation videogame system. Sony hasn't discussed timing of the product, but analysts don't expect it to appear before 2006.

IBM and Sony have invested $400 million in development of the chip. Sony has committed $325 million more for chip production at IBM's East Fishkill, N.Y., semiconductor plant.

Sony and IBM are expected to announce that next year they will start selling the first Cell-based product -- a high-performance workstation designed for use by videogame designers and Hollywood animation houses. Pricing and marketing plans haven't been determined. IBM said a version of the workstation mounted in a rack with multiple Cell processors will be able to perform 16 trillion mathematical operations a second. That speed would theoretically make it faster than all but a dozen of the world's supercomputers, although much of its power is dedicated to graphics processing rather than to general-purpose computing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110168960095385269,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
 
4.6 Ghz? Bolas, alguém estava à espera disto? Apontava para os 1-2Ghz mas nunca 4Ghz.
Qual será a tecnologia que usam?

Resta saber se vai ser fácil usar estes CELL's para fazer coisas mais complexas. Para processamento de audio, video, gráficos, etc podem vir a dar *trabalho* à concorrência.
Nvidia e Ati que se cuidem.

Programar um bicho destes com *n* CELL's não deve ser brincadeira.
 
Parece que vai usar Rambus Xdr+Redwood bus

Analysts we reached this morning say that Rambus is very likely to benefit from the Cell processor announced today by Sony (SNE), IBM (IBM) and Toshiba (TOSBF). Of note, Rambus announced back in January 2003 that it had licensed its XDR memory and its Redwood high-speed parallel interface (its Yellowstone and Redwood technologies) to Sony and Toshiba. While IBM was NOT MENTIONED in that 2003 release, Big Blue is known for having a strict approval process when its name appears in other company's press releases.

http://finance.yahoo.com/mp#rmbs

Xdr -> http://www.rambus.com/products/xdr/

Redwood -> http://www.rambus.com/products/customsolutions/redwood/
 
oops, não se pode falar de $ :D.

A Ibm/Sony/Toshiba são lixados. Estão a anunciar um anuncio (a 6 fevereiro). Muito eles gostam de fazer hype.
Pelos poucos pormenores não dá para saber muita coisa. Dão informações, mas não as dão completas ou são muito vagos.
Só me pergunto se eles não têm outras intenções além dos "aparelhos de sala".

open platform for next-generation computing
Current PC architecture is nearing its limits
Supports multiple operating systems at the same time
 
Epá, se fizerem uma versão "home computer" que corra Linux ou Solaris e corra os games da PS3 eu compro logo. Era a máquina perfeita! :D
 
É mesmo muito importante mas este conceito de computação não é novo. O problema é que se torna *complexo* dar *uso* a este tipo de chips para coisas que não sejam coisas repetitivas e simples. É claro que é o futuro mas não se sabe se é para 10 anos ou 50 anos. :D
São chips que praticamente só *conhecem* instruções do tipo SSE/MMX/3DNOW/Altivec e que a 4Ghz fazem as continhas necessárias para renderizar imagens que nem doidos. No caso das gráficas é passar de um GPU complexo e difícil de projectar para meia dúzia de CELL's que ligados entre si por canais de comunicação rápidos fazem a coisa muito mais rapidamente.
 
Estive a por a leitura em dia e passou-me ao lado que estes CELL's vão ser versões light do POWER(pc) com Altivec para gente grande.

Já estou a ver a Apple a usar meia duzia de CELL's nas suas workstations para os gráficos e audio.
 
Xpirit disse:
Estive a por a leitura em dia e passou-me ao lado que estes CELL's vão ser versões light do POWER(pc) com Altivec para gente grande.

Já estou a ver a Apple a usar meia duzia de CELL's nas suas workstations para os gráficos e audio.

Pelo menos do que li até agora, para isso acontecer a Sony e a Toshiba tinham que aprovar essa decisão. Não sei se a Sony ia gostar de ver o Cell nos Macs.

Mais uma noticia de hoje:

The "Cell" processor that will power the next version of the PlayStation game console will also be adaptable for advanced scientific research, but you won't have to be a rocket scientist to program it.

Besides workstations, game machines and TV sets, Cell is also likely to power certain types of scientific supercomputers, streaming media servers and image analysis systems, all of which have continually expanding needs for processing power. Hofstee said Cell taps into an emerging "convergence between what we think of as supercomputing and what we use in the entertainment space."

"We've created something that is very flexible," he said. "Having a more generic architecture will allow people to do new things."

http://news.com.com/PlayStation+3+chip+goes+easy+on+developers/2100-1043_3-5476933.html
 
Back
Topo