Software developer kit for Cell chip

The triad behind the Cell processor has released a software developer kit for the chip to help foster its popularity.

The kit, which contains more than 1,000 pages of documentation, includes extensions for optimizing the chip for Linux applications and other features.

Jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the Cell processor is designed to handle complex, graphics-intensive applications better than standard processors. The chip is built around a PowerPC core, but contains eight helper processors that can handle audio, video and other tasks.

Sony will insert the chip into the PlayStation 3, while Toshiba will put it into televisions.

Over time, the companies hope to get derivatives of the chip into everything from cell phones to supercomputers. Earlier this year, the first company outside the IBM-Sony-Toshiba group, Mercury Computer Systems, agreed to put the chip inside its workstations.

Still, despite some of the touted advantages of Cell, the triad will likely have to perform quite a bit of grunt work, including putting out things like the developer kit, to push the chip toward market acceptance. Skeptics note that cell phone makers and others can already chose from a wide variety of high-performance microprocessors that are far more familiar than Cell.

[Alfred de Vigny]

Cell phone makers

I'm sorry, but processors used in cell phones are orders of
magnitude less powerful than 'Cell'. Most of them are
ARM-based with clocks around 200Mhz. Not even is the PDA
a market for 'Cell', today with StrongARM up to 800Mhz. This
'Cell' processor is designed for calculation-intensive products
or high-end PC's. It is a revolution, and it may bring a big
advantage to Linux. It may even be the key to Linux adoption
on the desktop through gaming.

[Gronar Snaggletooth]

LMAO

The cell is as "revolutionary" as an electronic toilet paper dispenser.

WTF!?

I'm sorry but 1,000 pages of text without an actual dev kit? Maybe it includes how to make an IDE for Cell or something, but that seems a little exsessive, doesn't it? To anyone?

[Adrien Lamothe]

There is an actual Cell Processor SDK

There is indeed an actual Cell processor development kit. You can find it at this URL:

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/topics/cell

Enjoy! Things are about to get very interesting!

- Adrien Lamothe