IBM stops developing Cell processors

It was confirmed that IBM is stopping the development of the Cell processors used in PlayStation3 consoles, including their latest version of PowerXCell 8i.



The Cell processor was originally conceived by the “PlayStaion Father” Ken Kutaragi (Ken Kutaragi) and later developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba for use in PlayStation3, televisions and supercomputers.



The main problem of Cell processors is the difficulty of developing for them.

')

Cell architecture uses a new memory coherence technology, for which IBM has registered a large number of patents. This technology focuses on high performance per watt. Memory bandwidth is a priority over latency, and peak core bandwidth is more important than code simplicity.

Wikipedia

The latest development of IBM with Cell technology is PoweXCell 8i used in the world's second-largest supercomputer Roadrunner.



However, this processor will be the last in the line of Cell. IBM Vice President David Turek (David Turek), told the German site Heise Online that the planned processor 32 SPE Cell will not be released.



However, David Turek explained that the features of Cell processors will be used in the design of other processors. It is possible that they will be used for the GPU, in hybrid developments that are currently being developed at IBM.



Sources:

http://www.playstationuniversity.com

http://www.heise.de