The New Cell Processor (An excellent article written in layman's terms)

[bfonnes]

link

This was originally posted in the "Highly Technical" forum, but I think it is a hardware issue, because IBM is going to release a workstation based on the Cell later this year.

BFonnes

 

[ribbon13]

The cell is highly parallelized, and most likely wouldn't be very useful for general computing...

However.. in the right configuration/enviroment, they might give ATi/nVidia chips a real run for thier money.

 

[bfonnes]

Despite the misconceptions about the "Cell," it is not a graphics processor. The PS3 will have its own graphics subsystem just like the other Playstations. It performs the same kind of functions as a regular CPU, but at 4.6 GHz. Please read all the way down to the bottom of the link. Please post technical details of why you think a highly parallelized processor running at 4.6 GHz would not run general software very well. Of course everything is not going to need to use all the FPUs, but this will in no way make it slower for generalized applications.

BFonnes

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: bfonnes
Please post technical details of why you think a highly parallelized processor running at 4.6 GHz would not run general software very well. Of course everything is not going to need to use all the FPUs, but this will in no way make it slower for generalized applications.

Sure it would. If the software running on the chip can't take advantage of any of the additional vector FPU capabilities of the chip, it will perform no better than any other similar general-purpose processor, on those tasks.

 

[ribbon13]

I never said it was a GPU, but that's about all it would be good for.

It lacks flow control, and isn't x86 compatible. I doubt it will even do what a Power4/PowerPC 970 (G5) could do.

 

[Goi]

This is a back to basics implementation of a CPU that disregards control logic and tries to rely on software and the PPC core to do any sort of steering/scheduling required to keep those execution units fed, much like VLIW designs. It works if you have inherently parallelizable code, or if your software(compiler) is really good, but otherwise, its actual performance will probably be a lot worse than its theoretical max.

 

[ribbon13]

It would be useful for running many complex independent AI's for a game, too bad most of the money in a lot of games budgets is spent on graphics for the wow factor.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I do see one powerful application of Cell technology though - running cellular automata. Maybe some sort of insanely-powerful realtime fractal-zoomer too. Imagine what some democoders could do with this thing, once they get their hands on it. 🙂

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: bfonnes
Despite the misconceptions about the "Cell," it is not a graphics processor. The PS3 will have its own graphics subsystem just like the other Playstations. It performs the same kind of functions as a regular CPU, but at 4.6 GHz. Please read all the way down to the bottom of the link. Please post technical details of why you think a highly parallelized processor running at 4.6 GHz would not run general software very well. Of course everything is not going to need to use all the FPUs, but this will in no way make it slower for generalized applications.

BFonnes

Why do people keep thinking that the Power5 core in Cell will be clocked at the full speed of the chip? There aren't any Power5 CPUs of which I am aware clocked anywhere near 4.6 ghz stock. xbdestroya posted some time ago in a different thread that the Power5 core will be clocked at 1/2 the speed of the vector units. So, a 4.6 ghz Cell will have a Power5 core running at 2.3 ghz.

When running "general" software, Cell will likely perform like a 2.3 ghz Power5 with limited Altivec support(if any) and a totally screwed-up cache l1/l2 cache(possibly no l1/l2 at all). Current G5s would spank it.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: bfonnes
Despite the misconceptions about the "Cell," it is not a graphics processor. The PS3 will have its own graphics subsystem just like the other Playstations

It's not a misconception. If the Cell is as powerful as the hype claim it is, why would you NEED a GPU in it? It should be like running quad A64-FX with quad 6800 Ultras with just a single Cell according to all the hype.