Yellow Dog Linux

Ibm announced phase out of Cell development. Sony removes OtherOS from PS3 line. PS3GRID is not going to write software for new problems. Graphics processors continue to develop higher GFLOPS. I think it is the end of an era. However, the Cell processor brought us to the heterogeneous multicore platform of the future and provided a cheap "supercomputer" to play with.

kengreen wrote:Ibm announced phase out of Cell development. Sony removes OtherOS from PS3 line. PS3GRID is not going to write software for new problems. Graphics processors continue to develop higher GFLOPS. I think it is the end of an era. However, the Cell processor brought us to the heterogeneous multicore platform of the future and provided a cheap "supercomputer" to play with.

To be honest, I think the writing has been on the wall for the Cell for quite a while. As ambitious as the Cell processor was, it was probably doomed to be a niche player right from the start. ATI & nVidia have just made too many strides in GPU performance to require a strange, mixed-mode architecture like the Cell.

Plus - nVidia, in particular - has made coding for GPUs much easier with their CUDA architecture. It supports C natively, and there are 3rd party extensions for Python, FORTRAN, Java and MATLAB.

It's a shame PowerPC isn't as popular as Intel for desktop computing. I would really dig a system based on the Xenon in the 360.

Cheers,
Paul

I think that OpenCL which supports ATI and NVIDIA GPU's as well as the Cell Processor will be the future. At least, that is where I am going to focus my education. I got an MSI laptop with a Core 2 Duo and NVIDIA 8220M G graphics processor, the minimum necessary for CUDA or OpenCL programming. It was about the same price as a PS3. Not as powerful but helpful. My PS3 will slowly revert to a Rock Band platform.

http://www.driverheaven.net/news.php?ne ... z0Xhq6YCSF

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/ ... velopment/

With Sony bricking the phat PS3 with firmware 3.10 distorting HDMI video to the point of illegibility and no fix in subsequent firmware releases is another step closer to closing the book on a PS3 running linux.

Taellik

And - just when you were ready to bid the Cell farewell....

Toshiba CELL REGZA 55X1 HDTV: 8 simultaneous time-shift channels

Apparently, Toshiba's upcoming top of the line Regza HDTVs use the Cell for their magic. Not the SPURS engine - but a true Cell. It's a small box external to the TV that provides DVR, extra tuners, web browser, etc.

More pictures of this bad boy here:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/tosh ... on-at-ces/
and
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/tosh ... l-tvs-for/

I wonder if this box shares any PS3 DNA. Considering Toshiba & Sony are nominally competitors, I would guess not.

Cheers,
Paul