IBM opens door to Cell processor details

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 13 Jun 2005 at 16:21

IBM is backing the open-source community to kick start demand for its Cell processor.

Big Blue announced in Barcelona last week that it was to provide key hardware and software specifications of the new chip to the open-source community to drive rapid development of platforms and applications.

While Apple's Steve Jobs was reportedly thin on enthusiasm for the new processor, games console makers are already working on how to integrate Cell's mammoth multimedia capabilities into their next-gen consoles.

Michel Teyssedre, VP Strategic Business Development - ISG - EMEA, told us that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are working on their own engines to harness the some 256Gflops of performance available from Cell.

Opening up Cell specs is one thing, but putting those specifications in the public domain for use by the open-source community quite another. Should a rival chip maker take that information to build a clone, Teyssedre said IBM's response would be: 'We would sue them'.

He said that rather than a wholesale open-sourcing of the Cell processor, the announcement is more to do with 'the openness of architecture'.

'We want the architecture to be flexible,' he said. 'And this information will allow others to customise each element.'

He said that although IBM is looking at how to make hardware more open, in line with its Linux strategy, these were but the first tentative steps down that road. 'We don't have all the answers,' he warned.

Yet the company does have a strategy for Cell in that it is a good match for types of devices and workloads where Linux is used today - for example in set-top boxes and video-editing workstations. IBM also sees Cell in other image-processing-heavy industries such as medical imaging and even High Performance and Scientific computing.

The announcement also underlines IBM's commitment to the power.org community, which is focussed on driving the PowerPC architecture along open standards.

The Cell architecture is jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba and features a networks of processors that communicate with each other in the same way neural cells in the brain do.

For more information visit the IBM website.