CELL analysis

[Psikotiko]

Ars Technica will be there.

I just wanted to drop a quick line on the front page and let the industry types who read the site know that I'll be in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday to cover IBM's unvieling of the Cell architecture at ISSCC. If anyone wants to get in touch with me about meeting up at the conference, email me at jstokes@mailcircuit.net.

Also, if any Ars readers in the SF area are up for it, I'm sure we could do some kind of short-notice Ars meet on Monday night. If you guys want to arrange something like this, go ahead and set it up in the discussion thread attached to this post.

Finally, I should mention that I'm really looking forward to seeing what IBM has up their sleeve with this. I'm going to refrain from doing any speculating this close to the launch, but I will go ahead and hint at some of what I actually know. I once speculated somewhere (I can't find the link right now) that IBM would probably start introducing a basic core design at the top end and then migrating that design down into other niches, just like they've done with the POWER4->970 shift. I stand by this bit of speculation.

Also, regarding rumors of potential Apple uses of the Cell processor, I don't think it's at all likely (at least not anytime soon) for reasons that will become clear in Monday's session.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050201-4572.html

 

[one]

Ars Technica will be there.

I just wanted to drop a quick line on the front page and let the industry types who read the site know that I'll be in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday to cover IBM's unvieling of the Cell architecture at ISSCC. If anyone wants to get in touch with me about meeting up at the conference, email me at jstokes@mailcircuit.net.

Also, if any Ars readers in the SF area are up for it, I'm sure we could do some kind of short-notice Ars meet on Monday night. If you guys want to arrange something like this, go ahead and set it up in the discussion thread attached to this post.

Finally, I should mention that I'm really looking forward to seeing what IBM has up their sleeve with this. I'm going to refrain from doing any speculating this close to the launch, but I will go ahead and hint at some of what I actually know. I once speculated somewhere (I can't find the link right now) that IBM would probably start introducing a basic core design at the top end and then migrating that design down into other niches, just like they've done with the POWER4->970 shift. I stand by this bit of speculation.

Also, regarding rumors of potential Apple uses of the Cell processor, I don't think it's at all likely (at least not anytime soon) for reasons that will become clear in Monday's session.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050201-4572.html

So, according to this Hannibal guy, Cell is a descendant of POWER6? Or does he mean Cell is a new ancestor on its own?

 

[Titanio]

So, according to this Hannibal guy, Cell is a descendant of POWER6? Or does he mean Cell is a new ancestor on its own?

I read it as more of a reference to Power5, perhaps...(?)

And good news that Ars will be there, they at least will be able to digest everything properly and hopefully report on it in an accurate and timely manner.

Will be nice if someone else is there too.

 

[Brimstone]

Ars Technica will be there.

I just wanted to drop a quick line on the front page and let the industry types who read the site know that I'll be in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday to cover IBM's unvieling of the Cell architecture at ISSCC.


Finally, I should mention that I'm really looking forward to seeing what IBM has up their sleeve with this. I'm going to refrain from doing any speculating this close to the launch, but I will go ahead and hint at some of what I actually know. I once speculated somewhere (I can't find the link right now) that IBM would probably start introducing a basic core design at the top end and then migrating that design down into other niches, just like they've done with the POWER4->970 shift. I stand by this bit of speculation.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050201-4572.html

Intresting the number of times Hannibal used IBM, and not Sony/Toshiba.


I assume the "basic core" is in regards to a new core design. Probably Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will have this core in their next-generation hardware.

 

[cthellis42]

I assume he believes most of the architecture's design to be IBM's work (even if there were targets set by Sony). And because perhaps the presenters at ISSCC are mostly from IBM? (On that part I don't know for sure.) If he were bringing up lithography as well, he'd probably talk about STI together.

It does seem a bit odd, though.

 

[Titanio]

I asked Gamespot's Hardware editor if they'll be covering Cell @ ISSCC and he said "We plan on sending a few people." - so I guess we'll have a couple of places to go, at least, for news of the conference!

 

[BlackAngus]

Ars Technica will be there.

I just wanted to drop a quick line on the front page and let the industry types who read the site know that I'll be in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday to cover IBM's unvieling of the Cell architecture at ISSCC. If anyone wants to get in touch with me about meeting up at the conference, email me at jstokes@mailcircuit.net.

Also, if any Ars readers in the SF area are up for it, I'm sure we could do some kind of short-notice Ars meet on Monday night. If you guys want to arrange something like this, go ahead and set it up in the discussion thread attached to this post.

Finally, I should mention that I'm really looking forward to seeing what IBM has up their sleeve with this. I'm going to refrain from doing any speculating this close to the launch, but I will go ahead and hint at some of what I actually know. I once speculated somewhere (I can't find the link right now) that IBM would probably start introducing a basic core design at the top end and then migrating that design down into other niches, just like they've done with the POWER4->970 shift. I stand by this bit of speculation.

Also, regarding rumors of potential Apple uses of the Cell processor, I don't think it's at all likely (at least not anytime soon) for reasons that will become clear in Monday's session.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050201-4572.html

So, according to this Hannibal guy, Cell is a descendant of POWER6? Or does he mean Cell is a new ancestor on its own?

I dont believe that he is talking about Power 5/6 , but possible a link between Cell and Blue Gene L 's 440 series processor.

But I think it is rather the case of Cell being linked with the Power 5 Family , not the 440. Id love to be wrong on this. =)

 

[Entropy]

Intresting the number of times Hannibal used IBM, and not Sony/Toshiba.

Well, it's IBM who is doing the presentation and has people on hand to talk to, it's IBM who by all appearances has been driving the design, it's IBM that supplies the CPUs for all next generation consoles, Big Iron computers, servers, business computing solutions, Macs, various embedded uses,....
Sony, for all its home entertainment clout, isn't a major mover and shaker in the world of computing. IBM is.

Hannibal is competent. I think he can be trusted to extract useful information for those interested in computer architecture. But his reporting isn't likely to be geared towards the perpetual PS3/XBox2 bickering here.

 

[version]

cell PART 2

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/cell_analysis_part_two/