IBM will release a Cell simulator before 2006, and “open” the highly parallel multi-core architecture to embedded Linux developers much as it has opened the Power architecture, according to an interview in IT Manager's Journal with Peter Hofstee, architect of the chip's synergistic processing unit (SPU).

The Cell processor was co-developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. It is based on a single PowerPC core that can run Linux and other complex OSes, and is expected to clock above 4GHz. The Cell processor also incorporates independent vector processing units — SPUs, if you will — that can be programmed in microcode to run specific tasks, such as media processing. The initial Cell design incorporates eight SPUs.

IBM has published considerable technical data about the Cell, and has even contributed an “SPU filesystem” to the open source Linux community. The community, in turn, has responded with considerable interest, Hofstee says, with further attention likely once developers can actually play with the chip's architecture using a software simulator expected to ship by year's end.

Hofstee says IBM will market the architecture in much the same open source-like way it promotes Power, adding that if Sony's PlayStation 3 succeeds when it ships next Spring, Cell shipments will quickly surpass PowerPC shipments.

According to Hofstee, the Cell processor targets not only games, but a wide variety of virtualization and media applications that require parallelism. Additional details are available in the complete IT Manager's Journal story, here.

 
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