I admit all of the above looks pretty impressive, not to mention the 4.6 GHz clock speed that was achieved by the prototype – yes you read right a 4.6 GHz PowerPC – but before we start ringing the death-bell for our beloved PIV/G5/Athlon cousins, I should make it clear that despite the presence of a PowerPC Processor, the actual unit bares little resemblance to the commercially available G5. Even though it runs at over 4.0+ GHz, the Cell has a much simpler core than the G5, for example, the Cell processor does not perform “out-of-order execution”, a feature that is found in most processors designed in the past decade.

What this allows is to shuffle instructions and execute them without regard to the order in which they were programmed. This makes use of CPU cycles that would otherwise be wasted by certain types of delays in execution. Also unlike the current Desktop / Workstation CPU’s which have advanced powerful and efficient branch prediction algorithms- which further enhances speed by allowing processors to fetch and execute following instructions without waiting for a previous branch to be resolved, the Cell due to its simplified design, takes a huge hit in CPU cycles any time a branch mis-predicts.

This is where the current Cell architecture falls short. It is designed to process the same kind of highly predictable data, not the wide ranging and changing data that a CPU in Desktop or a Server deals with. Throw in a typical mix of common day data streams and types and the Cell would slow to a crawl, so for that reason, it cannot and will not replace the current crop of Altivec’ed , SSE , Hyper-threaded enhanced monsters that we are accustomed to, no matter how much wishful thinking some of the more extreme advocates can muster. Well not in its current incarnation at least.

So where to now? Although in the short term we may not see the actual Cell chips powering our Desktop Workstations, the concept of multiple cored chips with integrated I/O is something that I predict will definitely play a part in future chips from Intel , AMD and IBM Both AMD and IBM already have integrated Memory controllers onto their chips. The trend suggests that the designers are trying to cram as much I/O’s onto the dies as possible. The Dual Core avalanche about to be unleashed later this year is only the tip of the iceberg, with both Intel and AMD already hinting of future chip designs with 4 or even 8 cores. Also the potential of the Cell to be used as powerful DSP chips is something that would leave the current crop of DSP powered DAW’s in the dust. As the landscape moves towards the faster I/O technologies of PCIe, SATA II, DDR2, the thought of all of that extra available bandwidth being utilised by Cell driven DSP core cards to power our Virtual Studios is something that is not too far out of sight.

Heres Hoping :-)

Till Next Time,

Peace :-)