IBM builds the Cell into business machines

By Steve Malone

Posted on 9 Feb 2006 at 10:21

IBM has set out to prove that the new Cell processor, which will power the forthcoming Sony PlayStation 3 console, is for more than just playing games. Big Blue has announced that it plans to introduce a line of blade servers equipped with the new chip.

The new blade server based on a version of the Cell known as the IBM Cell Broadband Engine (BE) is designed to play to the processor's strengths and is expected to be used for computing-intensive and broadband media applications. It will be targeted at computer entertainment, film and other CGI (computer generated imagery)-based industries.

Developed in conjunction with Sony and Toshiba and based on IBM's PowerPC design, the Cell processor has a revolutionary nine core architecture that is set to provide the PlayStation with almost a supercomputer level of performance. Now IBM is turning the design into a multicore server product too.

This is not the first time that the Cell has been given a business application. In June of last year IBM announced that it had licensed the design to Mercury Computer Systems, a specialist in military applications.

The Cell BE processor will be combined an IBM BladeCenter H chassis. The new range of BladeCenter H models will run with a number of different processors including the PowerPC, the Intel Xeon and the AMD Opteron. IBM says the BladeCenter H machines offer a bandwidth increase of some ten times that of existing systems, with the capacity to provide more than 40 Gigabits per second of data to each blade. It says that the 9U optimised design is able to fit 14 fully functioning blades in a single chassis.

IBM intends to make the Cell BE-based system available for direct purchase in the third quarter of 2006.