IBM Plans to Open the Cell Processor

morcheeba writes "According to an EETimes article, IBM is planning on releasing the full specifications and software libraries for the powerful processor that will be in the Playstation 3. The goal is to stimulate open-source development for other applications of the chip. The article doesn't mention if there will be some affordable development systems for all these programmers -- I'm hoping for a ps3 devkit." From the article: "IBM is eager to find other opportunities for Cell, but it's going to take a lot of software work...Going to the open-source community makes sense, because they could attract a lot of pretty smart programmers who could spin out software and applications for Cell."

Re:What I wonder...

[sintacks]

I'm sure they're thrilled to have a much larger collective effort being put into their product. Wouldn't you?

Sam Fisher?

[Mille Mots]

I guess if they encourage development outside of the Sony realm, they'd be fostering a 'Splinter Cell?'

Woah

[Mathness]

Be careful when opening it, if you break it you have splinter cells all over the place.

Can we say ...

[Bazzalisk]

... Linux on Playstation!

Re:What I wonder...

[BawbBitchen]

>Right, and how much did the Linux Development Kit for the PS/2 take off...

Well it you can run Linux on a model 9595 with the P166 but it is slow. Now I had a Type 4 complex that I upgraded to a P233, and had 256MB of ECC memory on the system and got Gentoo Linux running on it. Was never quite as good at OS/2 on the box..... ...What?!?...Oh, sorry, you mean PS2 as in Sony not PS/2 as in PersonalSystem/2 from IBM with the MCA bus.

Damn, which people would pay attention to details.

Power save mode?

[PornMaster]

Well, if it has a power save mode, is it a Sleeper Cell?

Fortune Cookie in the Oven

[Nom du Keyboard]

"It can be hard to give stuff away for free," Kahle said in an interview

This has the sound of the next Slashdot Fortune Cookie in the making -- or should I say in the baking?

Re:Neat But...

[Nom du Keyboard]

How would someone go about acquiring a CELL chip and other hardware required to run it?

Buy a PS3?

Re:Can we say ...

[macaulay805]

... Linux on Playstation!

Or better yet ... Playstation on Linux!

Re:A free anti XBOX 360 Army

[0kComputer]

I think Army may be a little strong, more like platoon or possibly regiment, most of whom probably don't have time for video games.

Re:Open HARDWARE movement

[ErikTheRed]

Some people [openbsd.org] are on this big-time... they even have a song [openbsd.org]!

Re:Interesting

[g-san]

how do i respode to a message?

you are obviously a script.

Re:Cell: new desktop processor, or video-card kill

[KDR_11k]

Which is of course quite funny because Sony opted to use a dedicated GPU instead of the Cell for rendering the graphics.

Shhhh.....

[lullabud]

That might clue people into the fact that the Phantom Game Console runs Duke Nukem Forever on AmigaOS.

It makes perfect sense for IBM

[JaF893]

Going to the open-source community makes sense, because....

they will work for nothing!

Re:OpenCores

[swillden]

Because it is an excellent source of ideas, and ideas are what keep all the IT markets moving.

Really? I thought patents and intellectual property lawsuits were what keep the IT markets moving.

Re:IMB PCs Running Everything

[Derleth]

And if I CAPITALIZE most WORDS I will become MICROSOFT'S worst nightmare and break the WINTEL monopoly even SOONER. Then APPLE and IBM will pay me MONEY for my CAPS-LOCK of DOOM.