Cell Processing: Price & Date for PCs?

[Tom McCurdy]

I have been reading about the new cell processing that would be used for the PS3. I was wondering when it would be available for regular computers and what price range you think it would be in. I was hoping to build a very nice computer before I go off to college next year, but I am kind of against investing in a computer right before the biggest processor revolution in a long time. Does anyone know any price/date it may be released?

 

[Anttech]

Price range: Dont Know
Availablity: Soon, I read on /. that they were looking to have these chips in HDTV this year, and therefore will probably be in PC's soon since both SOny and IBMare working on the project

 

[Bramski]

"IBM has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4242447.stm

 

[chroot]

From the BBC news article:

And while marketing speak describes the chip as a "supercomputer" - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers.

Why do they put technologically-illiterate journalists on assignments about technology?

Of course, a single chip is not going to compete against any of the world's top 500 massively-parallel, 8,000+ processor behemoths. Since when did anyone expect their PlayStation console to compete with the greatest computing machines ever built by mankind?!

As of 2002, the US Department of Defense currently defines the word "supercomputer" as any machine capable of at least 190 GTOPS (billions of theoretical operations per second). This single chip beats that by about 30%. The term "supercomputer" is quite a bit misleading -- a supercomputer is not necessarily one of the world's most capable computers. Instead, a supercomputer is any machine which has sufficient capability to make the Department of Defense wary of allowing its possession by hostile countries. The bar continues to be raised as technology advances. The export rules are simply to protect an American technological lead of a few years over its potential enemies. It's likely that, in a year or two, the Department of Defense will up the ante, and this Cell chip will no longer be classified as a "supercomputer."

- Warren

 

[FulhamFan3]

I highly doubt it'll be on any windows based pc's.

 

[franznietzsche]

As of 2002, the US Department of Defense currently defines the word "supercomputer" as any machine capable of at least 190 GTOPS (billions of theoretical operations per second). This single chip beats that by about 30%.

I want. Bad.

Just the ability to run ten calculations simultaneously would be huge for me. Absolutley huge. I want one.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

Wouldn't this greatly help with things such as rendering? or media related projects?