Cell Server (IBM)

[Mikage]

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/NEWS/20050524/105016/
Cell Processor Based Blade Server(IBM)

Cell(2.4GHz～2.8GHz)*2
XDR-RAM(512MBit*10)*2
South Bridge LSI*2
400Gflops(if 3.0GHz)
OS:Linux 2.6.11

Related article:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/615/615521p1.html

 

[Shifty Geezer]

OS:Linux 2.6.11

Linux kit on PS3? Woohoo! Home-brew heaven!

 

[London Geezer]

Hold on... There are 4 big white chips and 4 big fans (2 bigger than the other 2??)...

If that's a 2 Cell configuration, what's all the rest?

 

[Vaan]

Hold on... There are 4 big white chips and 4 big fans (2 bigger than the other 2??)...

If that's a 2 Cell configuration, what's all the rest?

The biggest pair of southbridges ever

 

[Nite_Hawk]

There is no upgradable memory... :/

I hope this is just a prototype board. It'd be nice if the cell chips were socketable too so you could start out with 1 and upgrade as necessary. I'm actually considering picking one of these up if they retail at a semi-resonable price.

Nite_Hawk

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Hold on... There are 4 big white chips and 4 big fans (2 bigger than the other 2??)...

If that's a 2 Cell configuration, what's all the rest?

nVIDIA GPU's

 

[London Geezer]

Hold on... There are 4 big white chips and 4 big fans (2 bigger than the other 2??)...

If that's a 2 Cell configuration, what's all the rest?

nVIDIA GPU's

For servers?!?! Talk about overkill... Not like the guy's gonna play FEAR on the server...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

8 of these are needed for KZ to run in realtime. Or maybe they're PPU's? PPU's have to appear somewhere, eventually

 

[London Geezer]

That's the Proof (TM)!!

Killzone was realtime... on a 2X Cell, 2X RSX, 1GB XDR System!

 

[Nite_Hawk]

That's the Proof (TM)!!

Killzone was realtime... on a 2X Cell, 2X RSX, 1GB XDR System!

With a PPU!

Nite_Hawk

 

[mckmas8808]

That's the Proof (TM)!!

Killzone was realtime... on a 2X Cell, 2X RSX, 1GB XDR System!

Thats funny. I tell you what just reading these comments just make me what Killzone to be real even more. I think I would pass out if Killzone is playable at TGS. I might even buy two PS3s.
________
HERB SCALES

 

[London Geezer]

That's the Proof (TM)!!

Killzone was realtime... on a 2X Cell, 2X RSX, 1GB XDR System!

Thats funny. I tell you what just reading these comments just make me what Killzone to be real even more. I think I would pass out if Killzone is playable at TGS. I might even buy two PS3s.

Oh Lord if you exist, save me from this hell!! I've been good this year!!

It was a joke, why can't we just drop the KZ thing!!

 

[mckmas8808]

I know it was a joke damn. And me passing out if I seen it at TGS was a joke too hence the smiley face.
________
Artist

 

[altruismm]

That's the Proof (TM)!!

Killzone was realtime... on a 2X Cell, 2X RSX, 1GB XDR System!

Killzone CG was realtime... on a
2? Cell, 2? RSX,1?GB XDR System

 

[Carl B]

Well, looks like they'll be going on sale before too long it seems. I wonder what their uptake will be.

IBM unsheathes Cell blade server
By Joe Fay
Published Friday 27th May 2005 15:36 GMT

IBM demonstrated a blade server board based on the Cell architecture at the E3 show this week, and reportedly plans to sell the boards in rack-based server systems.

The board carried two Cell processors running at up to 2.8Ghz, as well as 1GB of DRAM split across two chips, according to Nikkei’s TechOn service. The demo box ran on Linux.

The chips have been clocked at 3GHz in the lab, according to an IBM engineer quoted by TechOn, meaning theoretical performance of 400Gflops for a two chip board.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the demo board featured chunky heatsinks and fans. However, IBM expects to be able to use thinner heat sinks which will allow it to squeeze seven of the boards into a rackmount chassis.

The massively parallel architecture has been jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, and so far they seem to be pitching it at every market that comes to mind, from consoles, to PDAs, mainstream computers, and digital home appliances.

That Cell will be underpinning Playstation 3 is no secret. That IBM chose E3 to demo the dual-processor blade board may point to the company’s designs on compute intensive entertainment market. Hollywood is gobbling up computer capacity, while the onset of HDTV, for example, is expected to put massive demands on broadcasters’ tech resources. Or perhaps the engineers had simply lashed together the board and just wanted to show off their work.

IBM already has one of the more diverse blade server lines around with Xeon-, Opteron- and its homemade Power-based systems.

LINK

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Didn't IBM say they weren't releasing Cel kit of their own, but are open to develop kit for customers? I imagine this board is just a demo of what could be done and not what they're going to take to market.

 

[twotonfld]

Now, in a server configuration, these guys should start up theire own BBE network if all the Sony hoopla is true, correct?

That could be pretty sweet - slamming together a few 400GFLOP boards.

Render farm, meet Cell. Cell meet render farm.

 

[Carl B]

Didn't IBM say they weren't releasing Cel kit of their own, but are open to develop kit for customers? I imagine this board is just a demo of what could be done and not what they're going to take to market.

Yeah, I read that too - the recent 'open-source' document. But before that, I had read that IBM was brining out Cell servers. I thought the former trumped the later, but now this comes along. Who knows what to think? Anyway I'm just going to go back to thinking these blade servers are going to be released now for lack of a better conclusion to come to.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Surely it'll require custom software to do what it is you want to do with them? I mean, just running Linux code isn't going to fully exploit the SPE's is it? I'm not sure where these machines are going to find a home, unless they're part of the content creation workstations that were planned for Cell from the very beginning.

 

[Carl B]

Well, reading the article the only market explicitly mentioned is Hollywood, so it certainly stands to reason. Anyway I guess we'll see what happens down the line. I'd be interested in knowing the price of one when (and if) they launch, if only to get a mental picture of their price/performance ratio against other solutions.