A few questions about Cell.

gurgi

Regular
Reading up a little bit on the technology lately.. from what I've read (and I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong).. the processors aren't called cell.. the cells are the packets of code to be run? I also remember reading something about being able to specify the fastest time a cell should run, so a faster cell product down the line could run a program identically to an older machine.

If this is the case.. is the inverse true? Could a slow PDA type cell device run an application written for a faster machine albeit at slower speeds? Maybe even games?

</random thought while I should be working>
 
CELL is both hardware and software.

On the hardware side, it more or less a Master CPU, with Slave co-processors which are full-CPU's in their own right.

On the software side, CELL are software modules, that the CELL Master CPU dispatches to those Slave co-processors mentioned above.

There is the option to specify timing in the execution of these modules, so that one CELL module does not drag down the whole system while other CELL modules need a result from it. I think the ideal behind that is, that if a problem takes a long time, the system knows to dispatch the CELL module to more execution units, so it can get the job done faster. I think the timing parameter, is nothing more than a priority setting.

Those CELL modules can run on slower hardware, but will just take longer to complete, which could effect things like frame-rate in a game world for example. It will run, but only slower.
 
As I understand it, in Cell the relation between software and hardware is a bit like the old Lisp machines from the seventies, where software and hardware is very closely entangled for better efficiency.
 
Those CELL modules can run on slower hardware, but will just take longer to complete, which could effect things like frame-rate in a game world for example. It will run, but only slower.

Um Edge, is what you're describing supposed to be revolutionary? I mean, I can run a windows 98 app on a 486 33 MHz cpu and get the same slow end results too.... :LOL: ;)
 
PC-Engine said:
Those CELL modules can run on slower hardware, but will just take longer to complete, which could effect things like frame-rate in a game world for example. It will run, but only slower.

Um Edge, is what you're describing supposed to be revolutionary? I mean, I can run a windows 98 app on a 486 33 MHz cpu and get the same slow end results too.... :LOL: ;)

Not exactly, the approach is rather different, the way i see it the difference is that a 486 is slow because IT IS SLOW, with Cell you can just squeeze in more processors to get the performance you want, which you can't really do with x86 architecture. But maybe its just me... And i'm not sure which one is the "better" solution, between "adding cores to the problem" or "adding GHz".... :| It seems like developers themselves are rather divided in their opinions too, as we've seen already...
 
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