Cell and Java/.net

[Shifty Geezer]

I think the point in question is not whether the SPUs are useful in desktop environments to begin with, but whether Cell can handle a typical OS and apps sufficiently to be of use in the home, and how much effort that would be?

Once Cell gets a placements in a home desktop running existing software, specialised software that makes use of the SPUs could then be written. Graphics apps would fly, home raytracing might take off, special effects in video editing would be instantaneous, while human-bound applications like word processing wouldn't be any slower than their Intel equivalents.

I don't think anyone would discount Cell in a desktop just on it's design. Whether it will make it depends in part on running software, and would .NET or another VM software base work in aiding this?

 

[Jabjabs]

sigh...one can only dream of a world without Microsoft and Windows...

Yeah since I got my Mac I haven't touched my PC except for when I need to use 3Dmax other then that, I'm happy strangly enough.

 

[LokeshRay]

i dont know if its possible for .NET to run on cell
they havent yet been able to run .net on LINUX systems...
so running it on a different microprocessor is a long shot.

also there are some fundamental differences between JVM
JVM compiles your source code into bytecode and then interprets it
.

in .NET , the framework(the CLR) compiles the source code into MSIL(like byte code)
now here comes the difference,,when u run a .net EXE, the JIT(just in time compiler) compiles the MSIL into actual native executable...
also,

platform independence is one of the goals of .NET but its a long way away.
JVM on the other hand has been run on several diferent processor platforms..
so u may be able to run JAVA code on cell, but maybe not .NET,. aTLEAST not anytime soon

 

[Tsmit42]

i dont know if its possible for .NET to run on cell
they havent yet been able to run .net on LINUX systems...
so running it on a different microprocessor is a long shot.

also there are some fundamental differences between JVM
JVM compiles your source code into bytecode and then interprets it
.

in .NET , the framework(the CLR) compiles the source code into MSIL(like byte code)
now here comes the difference,,when u run a .net EXE, the JIT(just in time compiler) compiles the MSIL into actual native executable...
also,

platform independence is one of the goals of .NET but its a long way away.
JVM on the other hand has been run on several diferent processor platforms..
so u may be able to run JAVA code on cell, but maybe not .NET,. aTLEAST not anytime soon

.NET, well mono and dotgnu(.net alternatives), runs on linux and mac and many other systems even sparcs.

 

[aaaaa00]

in .NET , the framework(the CLR) compiles the source code into MSIL(like byte code) now here comes the difference,,when u run a .net EXE, the JIT(just in time compiler) compiles the MSIL into actual native executable...

That's called native image generation (ngen.exe), and is _optional_.

You do it to get max performance if you know you're being installed onto a particular machine permanently and you want to optimize yourself specifically for it. You can always distribute the IL-based based binary if you don't want this.

 

[DemoCoder]

also there are some fundamental differences between JVM
JVM compiles your source code into bytecode and then interprets it

Nope. Whether Java bytecode is interpreted, JIT'ed, Hotspot JIT'ed, or AOT (Ahead of Time compiled) is up to developer. For the last few years, Java has been JIT-compiled, and I find it surprising that this FUD still gets reposted by Microserfs. If you want to generate an executable, compilers have been available for years (TurboJ, etc) but there is even a free one that comes as part of Cygnus/GCC called GCJ.

There is no real difference in the compilation deployment options between Java and .NET. The big difference comes in how .NET can handle native code and unsafe constructs vs Java. .NET allows unsafe C-style constructs to be specified in MSIL and run on the CLR. It also handles "by reference", "structs on stack", and Generics (Templates) via JIT expansion.