CELL Programming Model

[version]

The Cell Processor Programming Model

von Arnd Bergmann (IBM Deutschland Entwicklung GmbH)

The Cell processor from Sony, Toshiba and IBM is this year's most awaited newcomer on the CPU market. It promises unprecedented performance in the consumer and workstation market by employing a radically new architecture. Built around a 64 bit PowerPC core, multiple independent vector processors called Synergistic Processing Units (SPUs) are combined on a single microprocessor.

Unlike existing SMP systems or multi-core chips, only the general purpose PowerPC core, is able to run a generic operating system, while the SPUs are specialized on running computational tasks. Porting Linux to run on Cells PowerPC core is a relatively easy task because of the similarities to existing platforms like IBM pSeries or Apple Power Macintosh, but does not give access to the enormous computing power of the SPUs.

Only the kernel is able to directly communicate with an SPU and therefore needs to abstract the hardware interface into system calls or device drivers. The most important functions of the user interface including loading a program binary into an SPU, transferring memory between an SPU program and a Linux user space application and synchronizing the execution. Other challenges are the integration of SPU program execution into existing tools like gdb or oprofile.

A model has been proposed to provide an interface that attempts to integrate well into the existing set of Linux system calls and enable software authors to easily integrate the use of SPUs into their own libraries and applications


The Cell Processor Programming Model
A paper will be presented by Arnd Bergmann in 22-25 June at LinuxTag 2005

 

[Panajev2001a]

very interesting paper: nAo, I will be away during that period, can you e-mail the paper to me if it is available online ? Thanks .

 

[j^aws]

Geez guys, 6 replys and 5 off-topic!

The Cell Processor Programming Model
A paper will be presented by Arnd Bergmann in 22-25 June at LinuxTag 2005

Do you have a link for this article? Thanks...

 

[ChryZ]

Do you have a link for this article? Thanks...

It's not really an article, Version posted the agenda from Arnd Bergmanns presentation at the german linux convention "LinuxTag2005" (=LinuxDay2005).

Source:
http://www.linuxtag.org/typo3site/freecongress-details.html?&L=1&talkid=156

This is interesting:
"In his current project, he is responsible for the kernel in the first Cell processor based workstation computer, which premieres at Linuxtag 2005"

 

[_phil_]

ChryZ:
not sure if already posted:
edit: yeah that's old .

SUBJECT: Cell specs go open source

Friday 27th May 2005


PS3'S CELL PROCESSOR OPEN SOURCES

Next-gen battle moves front as Cell specs go open source to counter MS's XNA effort

12:41 Sony, IBM and Toshiba - joint developers of the Cell chip which will power both the PS3 and the next generation of consumer electronics - have decided to open up and make the Cell processor's specs freely available in a bid to encourage open source development for the chip.
While that might sound decidedly dull technology-led news even for a slow post-E3 Friday morning, it actually is rather exciting. No really, stay with us, because it means everyone will be able to develop for and take advantage of the trio's next-gen chip. If you need an example of how this works, look to Linux where a vast development community has sprung up around the alternative-to-Windows PC operating system.


Speaking to the EE Times IBM's Cell team leader Jim Kahle said: "Our intention is to open up the Cell software architecture. The idea is to get the industry to help us evolve the basic software layers."
IBM, Toshiba and Sony are expected to unleash the software libraries and specs sometime this summer, providing full details on hardware reference designs and the software development platform for Cell. If the development community bites big on Cell Open Source, the trio will be able to count on thousands of additional developers to exploit the architecture and ultimately produce more software for its various consumer platforms.

When we mentioned this to our resident techy experts they got very excited, pointing to the success of the Linux development kits for PS2 and called this Open Source development "a big win for Sony", saying simply, "more developers equals better software".

A bold attempt to open up the Cell platform then and quite an intriguing counter to Microsoft's XNA development plans. We have to say the battle of the next-gen grows more fascinating by the day.


John Houlihan

from http://playstation2-linux.com/forum/message.php?msg_id=48156

 

[loekf2]

Do you have a link for this article? Thanks...

It's not really an article, Version posted the agenda from Arnd Bergmanns presentation at the german linux convention "LinuxTag2005" (=LinuxDay2005).

Source:
http://www.linuxtag.org/typo3site/freecongress-details.html?&L=1&talkid=156

This is interesting:
"In his current project, he is responsible for the kernel in the first Cell processor based workstation computer, which premieres at Linuxtag 2005"

Actually this guy is known:

http://cell.raw.net/chat.php

Go here:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/fa.linux.kernel/browse_thread/thread/0f13eb4e110a007d

A Linux patch to introduce some sort of files system to communicate from the CPU to the SPU. Not really ground breaking.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/linux.kernel/browse_thread/thread/43efa5ebe0ca1d84

Linux patches to run "BPA" ... broadcast processor architecture -> Cell...[/url]