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[gofreak]

How would Cell help make stuff more properly ?

Well I'm simply trying to understand this "Cell engineer"'s claim a bit better. If shortcuts currently are taken in movie CG rendering, as you pointed out, I think his claim is that with all the raw horsepower Cell will bring, such shortcuts may no longer be necessary. You can use "proper" solution now, since you have the horsepower to make it viable within a certain period of time.

Certainly can do very efficiently but it would hardly be worthy of such a big announcement. I think I remember a CG workstation based on the PS2 architecture being annouced a few years ago. Have any of these ever been sold or even produced ?

That was the GSCube, no idea how many were used or sold. But I think Cell is probably on a different level.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

EmotionEngine2™ powered by Cell™

 

[Pimpbaa]

Who cares about cell? It's the GPU thats going to make or break the PS3 (as with the other consoles).

 

[Che]

Cell will be very powerful, no doubt about that, but man Kutaragi can't resist with the bullshit.

 

[Drexon]

Now he just needs to absorb some androids to become ultimate cell...

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Who cares about cell? It's the GPU thats going to make or break the PS3 (as with the other consoles).

Sort of..... I mean the GF3 in the xbox helped, but it's the games as well.

 

[gofreak]

Sort of..... I mean the GF3 in the xbox helped, but it's the games as well.

Hehe, true.

Even on a technical level, CPUs may have a more direct role in the rendering of graphics with the upcoming consoles..

 

[Pimpbaa]

Sort of..... I mean the GF3 in the xbox helped, but it's the games as well.

Yeah the games are the most important, I guess I just worded that wrong. It pisses me off how sony is going on about how cell will provide movie quality graphics and whatnot, when it's mostly up to the GPU to do such things.

 

[thorns]

If Cell was so damn powerful/easy to use, then why is Sony going with a totally non-cell GPU, which is basically going to be the same as NVIDIA's next-gen PC chip?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Yeah the games are the most important, I guess I just worded that wrong. It pisses me off how sony is going on about how cell will provide movie quality graphics and whatnot, when it's mostly up to the GPU to do such things.

Understood. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) but what I've been reading is that the GPU in the PS3 is supposed to work "intadem" with the Cell CPU(s). So whatever the bridge is between the Cell chip(s) and the GPU, it's bound to be a fast one.

 

[gofreak]

If Cell was so damn powerful/easy to use, then why is Sony going with a totally non-cell GPU, which is basically going to be the same as NVIDIA's next-gen PC chip?

Harnessing general(ish) processing power for a next-gen graphics engine done entirely in software would hardly be an easy task, even if Cell was a dream to work with. We also need that power for the simulation side of things

 

[BenT]

JACK INTO THE MATRIX WITH PS3

HAS USB 2.0 ALSO

 

[Axsider]

and some of you guys still stick up for Sony after they continue to spout off lies like this.

They release some good stuff, sure, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they often feed people bullshit on a regular basis and have some shoddy hardware that breaks down and they don't seem to give a crap. And their arrogance... my God.

Oh please, you are one of the biggest Playstation/SONY haters here, so keep your BS for yourself.
And you still pick of for MS after they continue to spout off lies like always?
-------

Cell will be very powerful, no doubt about that, but man Kutaragi can't resist with the bullshit.

Well, he knows more about CELL/PS3 than we know. There has to be a reason for his statements

 

[aaaaa0]

Well, he knows more about CELL/PS3 than we know. There has to be a reason for his statements

How about "Damn, my company has invested BILLIONS into this chip, I'd better hype it up as much as possible."? ;-)

 

[Phoenix]

Well, he knows more about CELL/PS3 than we know. There has to be a reason for his statements

 

[HokieJoe]

Ummm - not to nitpick but the Ballmer "monkey dance" was just him hollaring and jumping at an internal company event to his employees, to get them excited about their own company. Thats not what I would call a good example of "arrogance".


Now, when he told Janet Reno to F off when the antitrust stuff started (i.e. we can include a ham sandwich with Windows if we wanted), that was arrogance.

To be fair, that's probably not the first time someone told Janet Reno to eff off.

 

[MrSingh]

Cell is a good chip and everything but this is ridiculous! :lol :lol

 

[Vortac]

Uh, I just got that issue of Forbes and almost none of those comments are from Kutaragi. They are from an "inside engineer" who requested anonimity (they probably talked to Panajev or something)

No but seriously, Cell will be good but it's very similar to what Microsoft is doing, almost embarrassingly similar. It will be whether or not people want to try to take advantage of a few more cores, and frankly that's just more pain in the ass VU programming. The speed won't be that different either, give or take 700 mhz. Not a big deal in the long run, especially if MS beats them out in cache and sheer main memory size.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Microsoft is developing a 512 Gigaflop chip??


That is news to me...

 

[xexex]

Xenon CPU is estimated to be around ~84 Gflops. (or was it ~94 Gflops)

either way, it's not very comparable to the minimum expected from PS3 CPU which is 256 Gflops.

 

[DCharlie]

"either way, it's not very comparable to the minimum expected from PS3 CPU which is 256 Gflops."

what configuration of Cell units are we expecting to be in the PS3 to reach 256 Gflops?

 

[Izzy]

"either way, it's not very comparable to the minimum expected from PS3 CPU which is 256 Gflops."

what configuration of Cell units are we expecting to be in the PS3 to reach 256 Gflops?

1 PE - 8 APUs

 

[Ryudo]

This all sounds like bollocks. If we dont get toy story with PS3, then this whole idea is a joke.

How much is it gonna cost ? jeebus it doesnt sound cheap.

 

[DCharlie]

"1 PE - 8 APUs"

Great , at least everyone is on the same page.

 

[gofreak]

If we dont get toy story with PS3, then this whole idea is a joke.

Yeah, maybe... :lol

 

[Sumasshu]

"Muhahaha! With my power to convert books into movies, I am Perfect Cell!"

lol.

 

[gofreak]

Another mainstream article:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_07/b3920099_mz063.htm

Less orientated solely toward Cell, and possibly less hypey too - seems to suggest Cell may be the key to a much rosier future for IBM's processor business. Here's the relevant quotes:

Advances in Power chips have not only helped IBM gain share in high-end servers, they also have landed Big Blue the coveted role as processor supplier for next-generation game consoles to Sony (SNE ), Microsoft (MSFT ), and Nintendo. That's 100% market share. IBM has especially high hopes for the Cell chip, the brains of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 console, which is based in part on IBM's Power technology and is being co-developed by Sony, IBM, and Toshiba (TOSBF ). The partners are poised to reveal details at a chip industry conference on Feb. 7. One hint of what's to come: Cell will include a cluster of Power processors, making it 10 times more powerful than today's contenders. If the momentum continues, IBM could emerge as a much more potent force in the processor realm.

Not sure if the reporter is confusing a cluster of APUs and one Power core with "a cluster of Power processors" - the latter would suggest multiple PEs which is highly unlikely at the ISSCC.

 

[ThirdEye]

Too much hype even before the presentation... will anything be left for the press to discuss after the conference?

 

[KingV]

That's a good point. Perhaps they will be delivering bundled software that's supposed to ease the film CG making task? I have no idea, but we'll see soon enough.

Yes, OMG, Cell will run Poser!!!

 

[Discharger]

Someone should to bookmark/save this article - I'm sure if Sony doesn't deliver on the movie-like graphics claim a second time, it's going to come up again a few years from now

 

[gofreak]

Someone should to bookmark/save this article - I'm sure if Sony doesn't deliver on the movie-like graphics claim a second time, it's going to come up again a few years from now

Who made that claim in this article? Sony? Hmmm...?

Also, "movie-like" isn't a very measurable thing.

You shouldn't pay much attention to these claims - if they don't deliver on their performance claims (i.e. specs), then you can fire away at them. But then, they've made no performance claims about PS3 yet, the "1000x" slide aside - but what does that mean? 1000x what?

In other words, wait for the specs - if they subsequently underdeliver with the actual unit on the shelves, then you can lay into them. I'll note at this point that both MS and Nintendo made downward adjustments to parts their specs as they neared launch this generation..whereas Sony's remained as they said when they first revealed PS2 i.e. Sony arguably delivered more fully on their specs than MS or Nintendo did (though fair play to Nintendo, in terms of their performance claims they were the most transparent of the lot).

 

[Lord Error]

No but seriously, Cell will be good but it's very similar to what Microsoft is doing, almost embarrassingly similar.

If you really want to go there - embarrasing for who? Last I checked, Microsoft was switching sides to IBM, so that they can use that kind of multi-core concept - long after IBM/Sony/Toshiba were announcing their work on Cell.

Ah, who am I replying to. Vortac has never in his posting history replied to any of the comments made to his posts....