Cell Chip?

[AmigaBlitter]

From the Hyperion OS4 website.

The PowerPC family is one of the most popular processor architectures around, and because of the highly portable nature of AmigaOS4.0 it will provide further hardware targets in the future. It would be eminently suitable for - and relatively trivial to port to - the STI Cell processor used in the Playstation 3, and could even be made to run on IBM's Blue Gene, the world's leading super computer architecture. How's that for scalability?

[PPC]

Only can hope OS 4 gets ported to some kick ass hardware
like the cell proc asap  :-)

[Tripitaka]

PPC wrote:
Only can hope OS 4 gets ported to some kick ass hardware
like the cell proc asap  :-)

Even better if it was the PS3. Sony are OCPA members.....mmm :inquisitive:

[dammy]

Accept it would take Eyetech and Amiga Inc to approve the new Amiga board.  Then there is the issue the Cell CPU does not translate that well into desktop CPU.  Jobs maybe the Anti-Christ, but he's not stupid. That should be a big hint for those beating their chest for Cell CPUs.

Dammy

[itix]

Cell doesnt suit very well because of its multiple cores.

[minator]

Cell doesnt suit very well because of its multiple cores.

You may not have noticed but *all* newly announced or shipping processors have at least 2 cores, multiple cores is coming like it or not.

That said even the control core (the PPE) should be *at least* as capable as a 2GHz G5 - considerably faster than anything currently shipping in this market.
That's before anyone even looks at the SPEs...

The Amiga was always used a lot in creative computing - video, graphics, rendering and to a lesser degree audio.  Cell is a perfect match for these sorts of apps.

There's a simulator out soon so you can see for yourself.

[MskoDestny]

Well supposedly one PPE performs about the same as a 1.7GHz P3 (on code that wasn't written to run well on a PPE anyway) which I'm pretty sure is a good ways from a 2GHz G5.

The biggest problem with using Cell in a desktop system is that the cores are not symmetric. The SPEs won't run PowerPC code like the PPE so you can't just take a standard multi-threaded application and compile it for Cell and take advantage of all the hardware. You need to specifically develop it to use the SPEs.

The Xenon CPU in the XBox 360 would make a better desktop CPU for that reason, though the new dual-core G5s @ 2.5GHz probably have better overall performance for desktop use. No idea what the prices are for either if IBM will even sell them to anyone besides Microsoft and Apple respectively.

[Louis Dias]

MskoDestny wrote:
Well supposedly one PPE performs about the same as a 1.7GHz P3 (on code that wasn't written to run well on a PPE anyway) which I'm pretty sure is a good ways from a 2GHz G5.

The biggest problem with using Cell in a desktop system is that the cores are not symmetric. The SPEs won't run PowerPC code like the PPE so you can't just take a standard multi-threaded application and compile it for Cell and take advantage of all the hardware. You need to specifically develop it to use the SPEs.

The Xenon CPU in the XBox 360 would make a better desktop CPU for that reason, though the new dual-core G5s @ 2.5GHz probably have better overall performance for desktop use. No idea what the prices are for either if IBM will even sell them to anyone besides Microsoft and Apple respectively.

You can forget Apple but add Nintendo.  :-D

[MskoDestny]

I already said it in the other thread, but it stands repeating here. The Revolution won't be using a G5 it will be PPE derived just like the 360. Hannibal over at Ars Technica has some inside information to that effect. Given that he's a well connected guy and has a long and excellent track record I have every reason to believe him (he also makes an excellent case for why it makes sense).

[itix]

You may not have noticed but *all* newly announced or shipping processors have at least 2 cores, multiple cores is coming like it or not.

Yep.

The Amiga was always used a lot in creative computing - video, graphics, rendering and to a lesser degree audio.

Yes it was.

Cell is a perfect match for these sorts of apps.

But it is not a perfect match for MOS, OS4 or AROS. On the other hand there arent such software anymore except Blender and POV-RAY. Both available to LinuxPPC and other OS'es...

And before anyone mentions PS3... no, it is not an option. You cant create bootable PS1/PS2/PS3 CD or DVD without license from Sony.