Sony this week annnounced that
it will unveil a prototype of a new Cell Computing Board, which is composed of both Cell Broadband Engine and RSX GPU chips - components also found inside every PlayStation 3. Sony plans to show the Cell Computing Board at the SIGGRAPH show from August 7 to 9. The Cell Broadband Engine chip alone is capable of outputting 230 GFLOPS, and Sony believes that the incorporation of RSX 'realizes arithmetic operation speeds beyond' that speed.
The Cell Computing Board is designed to handle industrial applications.
According to Sony is expected to demonstrate the technology's use in real-time
processing of 4K images, or extremely high-resolution pictures. The Cell
Computing Board is also expected to be used for computer graphics rendering and
various physics simulations that take advantage of 'multi-thread processing
ability' of the Cell/B.E. The Board will be able to be embedded in a 1U (unit)
sized server and mounted on a 19-inch rack, and will consume 400W or less, said
Sony.
The Cell Broadband Engine has already been tested with non-gaming applications.
Even on the PlayStation 3, the Cell is able to run protein-folding simulations
for
Folding@home. Other scientific-related applications include medical imaging
at Mayo. The processor is also being used for the sake of national security in
surveillance technology.
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