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IBM to Debut High-Performance 'Cell' Chip

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

The microprocessor that will power Sony Corp.'s next-generation video game console will also run computer servers that IBM Corp., the chip's lead designer, is pitching to the defense, medical and entertainment industries.

The "Cell" chip will make its IBM debut in a new line of "blade" servers, which are relatively thin chunks of circuitry designed to perform specialized computing tasks.

IBM envisions Cell-based blades seeing action in markets requiring sterling graphics and intensive computing, possibly finding homes, for example, in military vehicles.

"It's not going to be a general purpose computer," said Tim Dougherty, IBM's director of blade center strategy. "But for certain things, it is incredible, and it will make orders of magnitude difference."

At a demonstration Wednesday in New York, IBM showed off Cell's processing power with a geology application that would have been right at home in a video game. A computer rendering of Mount Rainier, created using satellite photos and geological maps, allowed an operator to make a simulated flight over and next to the mountain.

Cell is slated to run Sony's PlayStation 3 video game system, which is expected before the end of the year, and high-definition TVs from Sony and Toshiba Corp., the companies that co-designed Cell. Last month, Sony, Toshiba and IBM renewed the partnership for another five years.

Cell is touted as a game-changing "supercomputer on a chip" because of its unusual design, which includes an IBM Power processor helped by eight additional processors working together. (Versions of IBM's Power processor are the brains inside other IBM computers and in PlayStation's main rivals, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co.'s Revolution console, also due this year.)

While Cell's performance is highly regarded, skeptics say it remains to be seen whether the chip will see enough broader uses to truly be revolutionary.

Before Wednesday's announcement, Cell's only assignment outside of Sony and Toshiba had been specialized medical and defense computers made by Mercury Computing Systems Inc.

For Cell to gain wide acceptance, IBM needs to spur outside programmers to write software that takes advantage of Cell's prowess. That could prove more challenging than usual because Cell is architected so differently.

IBM hopes this summer's release of the Cell-based servers kick-starts work by third-party programmers. Eventually IBM is likely to deploy Cell in other kinds of hardware, from supercomputers to data storage systems.

In turn, that could inspire other customers to follow Mercury's lead and try to tweak Cell for their own specialized purposes.

For example, defense contractor Raytheon Co. is exploring whether it can use Cell to dramatically improve the performance of sensor networks. Raytheon's chief technology officer, Peter Pao, called Cell "a very exciting technology" with "a lot of promise," but said Raytheon is still evaluating how to rewrite software and redesign systems to work with Cell.

"The most important thing is for this chip to have a large market with a large user base, because with that, IBM will have the financial incentive to continue to improve this product," Pao said. "We need that base."

One knock against Cell could be that it produces a relatively high amount of heat, which could keep it out of mobile devices.

Blade servers can be particularly sensitive to heat because they pack so much circuitry into a small space. However, Dougherty said the new servers are designed in such a way to get around the heat problem.

Dave Turek, IBM's vice president of "deep computing," noted that while Cell's current setup stems from the intense demands of video games, the chip is designed to be modified for different industries' applications. In other words, Turek said, future versions can be made cooler.

Shares of Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM were up $1.18, 1.5 percent, at $80.83 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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AP Business Writer Betsy Schiffman in New York contributed to this report.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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