The Cell
Architecture grew from a challenge posed by Sony and Toshiba
to provide power-efficient and cost-effective high-performance
processing for a wide range of applications, including the
most demanding consumer appliance: game consoles.
Cell - also known as the Cell Broadband Engine
Architecture (CBEA) - is an innovative solution
whose design was based on the analysis of a broad range of workloads
in areas such as cryptography, graphics transform and lighting,
physics, fast-Fourier transforms (FFT), matrix operations, and
scientific workloads. As an example of innovation that ensures
the clients' success, a team from IBM Research joined
forces with teams from
IBM Systems Technology Group, Sony and Toshiba, to lead the development
of a novel architecture that represents a breakthrough in performance
for consumer applications. IBM Research participated throughout
the entire development of the architecture, its implementation
and its software enablement, ensuring the timely and efficient
application of novel ideas and technology into a product that
solves real challenges.
You can
- Read the The Cell story in IBM's Innovation
Matters! and meet the IBM Research team which
helped create Cell,
- Learn about why the Cell heterogeneous chip
multiprocessor offers the most efficient approach to
achieve high computer performance,
- Find out about the groundbreaking architecture of
the Cell Synergistic Processor Unit which
allows Cell to deliver supercomputing performance on a
single chip,
- Learn about the simplified compiler-oriented
architecture approach on which the Cell Synergistic
Processor Unit is based, and
- Find links to additional technical information about
Cell.
We are preparing a special issue on high
performance computing on the Cell B.E., and a workshop on Cell
Systems and Applications (WCSA):
The technology and the design team behind the Cell
B.E. have been recognized in a variety of ways. Find out more about
Cell recognition and awards,.
