IBM, Sony to detail 'Cell' PS3 CPU February 2005

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/print.html>

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 Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/

IBM, Sony to detail 'Cell' PS3 CPU February 2005
By Tony Smith (tony.smith at theregister.co.uk)
Published Monday 29th November 2004 11:17 GMT

IBM, Sony and Toshiba - the three companies behind the 'Cell'
microprocessor - will formally detail the chip's workings at the
International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on 6 February 2005,
the trio said today.

IBM and Sony also said they were now ready to announce the promised
Cell-based workstation, which should enable software developers to begin
coding for the PlayStation 3, itself set to be based on the new chip.

The partners describe Cell as a 64-bit POWER-based "multi-core system" for
computers and next-generation digital home appliances. Crucially, each core
can run a single operating system, or run their own OS independently of the
others. OS options include real-time support.

With the confirmation that Cell is indeed derived from IBM's POWER
architecture, and given they way the chip's designers discuss it more in
terms of a general-purpose CPU than the more console-oriented Emotion
Engine of the PS2, it's clearly going to raise the possibility that the
part may be of interest to Apple.

And since IBM is also working on the CPU for Xbox 2/Xbox Next, there's the
chance of a certain degree of software compatibility there too, though
clearly the use of different high-level APIs will limit games and
application portability.

The chip's makers note that Cell is not only a multi-core architecture -
like the anticipated 'Antares' PowerPC 970MP - but multi-threaded too,
though it's not yet clear whether support for multiple threads takes places
within each core level, HyperThreading-style, or Sony and co. are simply
talking about spreading threads across cores. IBM's POWER 5 architecture
supports simultaneous multi-threading, so it seems likely Cell will too.

IBM and Sony also talk about big memory and I/O bandwidth - no great
surprise there, given it's a 64-bit processor and what IBM has demonstrated
with existing POWER and PowerPC processors. More interesting is the
integration of a security sub-system. The companies don't go into any
detail, but it sounds not unlike VIA's PadLock technology with its hardware
random number generator. Mention is made of "high-level media processing",
which could be a reference to AltiVec, the PowerPC SIMD engine.

There's also the suggestion that Cell will use a SpeedStep-style power
conservation technology, allowing the chip to reduced its clock frequency.
IBM's 90nm PowerPC 970 already has something along these lines.

Contrary to past speculation that Cell would ship at 65nm, its makers today
said it will debut as a 90nm part using IBM's SOI technology.

As for the Cell-based workstation, it's clearly only at the prototype
stage, IBM and Sony having come up with an "experimental model".

Still, it packs 2 teraflops into a standard (presumably) rackmount box,
apparently, with what sounds like multiple, multi-core chips operating as a
kind of cluster-in-a-box configuration. .

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'