A report from In-Stat suggests that while IBM's new Cell Processor is impressive, it still does not outperfom Intels latest CPU's.
A closely guarded secret for five years, IBM’s Cell processor has finally been unveiled, and the chip is expected to have a major impact on the video game market, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). The goal of Cell developers was to create a new architecture that could process the next generation of broadband media andgraphics with greater efficiency than the traditional approaches of ultradeep pipelines and the ganging of numerous complex and power-inefficient, out-of-order RISC or CISC cores, the high-techmarket research firm said. The chip will be a major part of Sony’s Next Generation Game Console, and may have other applications, but is unlikely to encroach dramatically on Intel’s territory.
“Some have called Cell an Intel killer, which is completely ridiculous,” said Kevin Krewell, In-Stat analyst. “The only place where the Cell processor can be considered competition for Intel will be where the Sony Next Generation Game Console competes with the Media Center PC.”
A recent report by In-Stat found the following:
— The total combined PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 & Revolution revenue forecast will rise from $1.1 billion in 2005 to $9.4 billion in 2008.
— Most of the actual chips in the Cell family are unannounced. The only announced product from the family is the version to be placed in Sony’s PlayStation 3.
— Overall, Sony will remain the market leader in the next generation of consoles with its release of the PlayStation 3. In-Stat expects both Microsoft and Nintendo to close the gap and release next-generation consoles of their own.
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"This one's bizarre, but we heard at lunch today that Apple is unhappy with the PowerPC production at IBM and will be switching to Intel-compatible chips this very year. Yeah, seriously."
I wonder if Paul Thurrott meant to let this slip out. Any idea why Apple might switch over to Intel?
My guess is that cooling is the biggest factor as to why these next-gen consoles are using the IBM processors. I mean the new Xbox will use 3 of these things! One must not be powerful enough?
You can ask yourself why all the three console manufactorers: nintendo, sony and microsoft use some sort of powerPC-technolgy in their products? Because it's cheaper than intel-based cpu technology?? Not likely!
PowerPCs are faster, cooler and more power efficient. They are the best suited choice for high speed consoles at the moment. Who would like a 4GHz intel, drawing 500watts, add a noisy cpu fan..or perhaps a water cooling system, to achive less than what you can get from a G5 2GHz in under half the power usage.
The PowerPC CPUs (and the CELL, which consists of powerPC-cores), are DEFINITELY an intel-killer in the area of consoles.
Perhaps the new IBM Cell Processor needs less cooling? That could account why the new Xbox has 3 IBM chips (might not be cell processors though) in it and the design is still small.