Sony's Cell chip for a New Amiga

[psxphill]

The chip is basically junk. It was designed with the idea of having the gfx processing done on the CPU... But it didn't really work and needed a proper GPU to go with it. At 6 years old, I'll bet the new quad core ARM SoCs would out perform it using much less power.

The CELL isn't that bad. It's true that they originally wanted to use it for rendering and for various reasons that didn't work out. It's also a bit of a nightmare to make use of all the power available, so most people don't bother. The 360 with 3 of the PS3 CPUs is easier for programmers to get to grips with.
 
The irony is that the PS1 was successful because it was easier to program than any console that had come before. The PS2 and the PS3 have become harder to program right when Microsoft joined the industry & they know the importance of making it as easy as possible for programmers.
 
ARM processors aren't particularly impressive, they are low power but they are also slow. I prefer Intel Atom. A trapdoor atom card would be awesome.

[psxphill]

Yeah, that did come across as a bit harsh... But yeah, I'm not a fan, the actual CPU core is pretty weak and of little use for desktop work.
 
The Xbox 360's CPU is better,

You do know that it's the same CPU? The 360 has 3 of them, while the PS3 has one plus the SPE's. The book about how the CPU was designed is a very interesting read.
 
But yeah, it's a high clock speed that doesn't necessarily translate into high speed.
 
The ARM uses less power and achieves more work per clock, but the atom can be clocked higher. Software compatibility on the atom more than makes up for it's drawbacks, especially on a desktop machine where power the power is less of a concern. Even on battery my atom netbook lasts 10 hours, which is more than enough.

[psxphill]

Software compatibility? For AROS, sure, but not for AmigaOS! Other operating systems - Linux is on ARM and x86, Android is ARM and soon x86.
 
Samsung will have their 2.0GHz ARM Cortex A15 dual-core out early next year - that will outperform even the fastest Atom (event the 2.13GHz ones). The ARM ecosystem is simply far more interesting at the moment.

Android has been on x86 for ages.
 
Next years ARM might beat this years atoms, but next years atoms will be better.
 
X86/x64 binary compatibility is more interesting to me, so ARM would have to come out with something amazingly better for me to even consider it.
 
ARM and Linux is fine for devices like NAS or TV etc, running Windows 7 on my A1200 would rock (ideally you'd have a graphics chip built into which ever cpu you had in the trapdoor).