IBM Full-System Simulator Team Speaks Out

Shell writes "The IBM Full-System Simulator for the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) processor, known inside IBM as codeword Mambo, is a key component of the newly posted offerings on alphaWorks. Meet some of the members of the team that pulled it together, and hear about the simulator in their own words."

You WANT A Cell System...

[Anonymous Coward]

Running Linux on one of these things is simply INSANE.

I have been through a lot of chip transitions over the years and been impressed with the leaps each new generation has made.

But Cell is something entirely different. It is such a HUGE leap in performance beyond x86 systems that to go back to using a x86 machine is unthinkable now for me. I almost feel drunk from the power I have at my hands...

Read up all the Cell info you can at IBM's site and read the various patents IBM, Toshiba, and Sony have out there. And find some way to get your hands on one of these...

I can now see why the PS3 stuff we are seeing is so amazing...

Amazing Cell Demo

[doctor_no]

Here is an impressive "virtual mirror" demo using the Cell processor put on by Toshiba. Basically, using a video camera, it can make a 3D model of the person in front of a the camera on the fly. Then it can manipulate the 3D model to change make-up, hair-styles, etc, basically a virtual magic mirror. Really demonstrates the truly unique features these more powerful processors will offer.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/lsi/images/toshiba_ce ll.mpg [nikkeibp.co.jp]

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20051 013/109623/ [nikkeibp.co.jp]

Re:You WANT A Cell System...

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

"The Pentium IV could easily beat the Opteron by cranking itself up to 6GHz if there was any practical way to extract 200W from a small core with no hot spots."

Not the case. Among other things, modern code is highly dependant on memory latency. P4 as of late hasn't even been getting 60% of clock; Opteron gets nearly 95%.

Your whole argument is why Intel developed the Itanium. The idea of producing a simpler CPU that is thermally more efficent is a novel one, but time and again we find that you can't erase the last 15 years of CPU innovation. We're still driving gasoline cars, we're still using paper money, and the Opteron still remians highly competitive with the Itanium at a fraction of the transistor count.