Researchers working on Cell processor supercomputer

10 Comments by Kyle Orland Feb 5th 2007 3:25PM
Filed under: Hacks, PC, Sony PlayStation 3

For years, Sony and IBM have talked up the power of the Cell processor that's at the core of of every PS3. Now, some University of Illinois researchers are working on finally unlocking that power for the next generation of highly parallel supercomputers.

The Illinois News-Gazette has a report on the efforts of user interface experts Marc Snir, Laxmikant Kale and David Kunzman, who say that a computer with a cluster of Cell chips could offer 50 times the performance of a similar sized PC. Squeezing out that performance is no small task, though -- Kale admits "it's going to be a challenge to program it."

Despite the team's inside access to Cell technology and tools, the N-G article ends with a joking complaint that the team members "haven't received a PlayStation 3 yet, either." Hey, if you want one that badly, just go to your local store, guys.

Tags: cell, cell processor, CellProcessor, computer, illinois, power, processing, processor, ps3, research, university of illinois, UniversityOfIllinois

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Hurricanes711 [xbl]: Feb 5th 2007; 3:36PM

this should be an engadget article

Jake: Feb 5th 2007; 4:23PM

Well, I guess the cell is the future of gaming afterall. Seriously, what does this have to do with games.

Ed81240: Feb 5th 2007; 4:55PM

This is a bit too much. Processors and such do not have a long lifespan, by the time they create the computer and win the challenge of programing for it cell processors will be yesterdays news.

Ice Monkey: Feb 5th 2007; 4:58PM

Joystiq doesn't report on IBM supercomputers that uses PowerPC tech, so why report this?

Flame bait.

Burnt Meatloaf: Feb 5th 2007; 5:01PM

Supercomputers are custom built for specific tasks that don't run very well on general processors. This doesn't really say that much about Cell's abilities.

Supercomputers also require highly accurate math and HUGE amounts of memory bandwidth. Chances are, this Cell will be very different than the one in the PS3.

epobirs: Feb 5th 2007; 5:35PM

THere is an old saying in Computer Science. 'Massively parallel systems are highly resistent to programming.'

TopaZ: Feb 5th 2007; 5:55PM

If you're jonesin for Cell, you can also get Blade servers that use Cell today.

Fester: Feb 5th 2007; 8:46PM

Hey they could make a really cutting edge PC with this, put in 30 Cell processors and then bottleneck it with a Voodoo Banshee. Keeping up the PS3 ethic you understand. ;)

nsr_schn_maul: Feb 5th 2007; 10:07PM

I go to the University and I didn't know that, oh well, I'm not in their engineering program any longer anyhow.

Nihilo: Feb 6th 2007; 11:28AM

Anybody remember how the cell chip was supposed to communicate with other cell chips, share processing tasks, stuff like that? Anybody try putting two PS3s next to each other -- do they do anything other than drain your checking account faster that way? (Hint: No.)

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