One of my three favorite computer magazines, along with Computer Shopper and Maximum PC, is free: ComputerUser. For years, I've only used it for the ads, which include most of the local computer builders in Southern California, just to keep an eye on the most common configurations, CPUs, video cards, etc. But lately, I've begun to read the articles (ha ha).
One of the most interesting was from James Mathewson, ComputerUser's editor-at-large, on how the mainstream media got it wrong when they were analyzing IBM's recent sale of its personal computing division to Lenovo, China's largest pc maker.
Mathewson said that IBM's move was not a retreat from the personal computing business that it practically invented, but rather a shedding of the paltry profit margins from the 'Wintel' pc business, where the lion's share of the profits go to Intel Corp. and to Microsoft.
Sure enough, just as Intel tried to regain a little momentum after the butt kicking it has received from Advanced Micro Devices, announcing that it has begun production of its first dual core CPUs, IBM and Sony and Toshiba steal the show by announcing what sounds like true breakthrough technology.
Those three companies are developing the Cell, a revolutionary computer chip with the equivalent of--get this--NINE processors onboard! It is the rough equivalent of a supercomputer on one chip.
IBM isn't abandoning the pc market, it is looking to crush it with a market of its own. Exciting stuff.
Here's one article from the heart of Silicon Valley on the Cell, from the San Jose Mercury News:
CELL TECHNOLOGY EXPECTED TO CHALLENGE INTEL.
By Dean Takahashi
Mercury News
In a bid to upend the computer industry, IBM, Sony and Toshiba on Monday unveiled a new supercomputer-on-a-chip that could change the nature of digital entertainment.
The Cell chip, which will first be used in Sony's Play Station 3 video console next year, could challenge Intel's domination of computing, analysts said.
IBM and its partners predict the Cell chip will be used in devices ranging from from handheld computers to supercomputers. IBM plans to put the chip in computer servers and work stations while Toshiba will use it in digital TV sets.
For consumers, that means they eventually could be able to buy a machine that runs video games so realistic that players will feel like they are inside the animated world of ``Shrek 2,'' according to the companies.
They say Cell chips also will give handheld devices the capability of a supercomputer.
Jim Kahle, a fellow at IBM, said the first Cell chip will operate at speeds greater than 4 gigahertz and will run software more than 10 times faster than the fastest personal computers today.
``This is a shot across the bow for Intel,'' said Richard Doherty, an analyst at the Envisioneering Group, a consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y.
``Intel still uses an architecture that came from a calculator chip,'' he said. ``Cell comes from a clean sheet of paper, where the engineers had the freedom to design from scratch for machines that manipulate images.''
Analysts said Monday that the Cell design is a step forward in computer architecture because balances speed, flexibility and low power consumption.
For now, the Cell chip's potential is unproven, since Sony has not yet revealed the capabilities of its forthcoming PlayStation 3. The consumer electronics giant plans to disclose initial details of the video game console in late March.
The Cell chip will be able to simultaneously access 128 pieces of memory. Each chip will contain the equivalent of nine processors. One is a 64-bit PowerPC processor that serves as the central dispatcher of software and data for the rest of the processors. It will be able to process 256 gigaflops. A gigaflop is a billion floating-point operations a second.
That is 40 times the mathematical ability of the chip in Sony's current PlayStation 2.
Intel executive Pat Gelsinger said in a recent interview that Sony has promised great things before. He noted the PlayStation 2 chip, dubbed the Emotion Engine, failed to live up to its promise to power a wide variety of consumer electronics.
Robert Manetta, an Intel spokesman, noted Monday that a new computing design requires host of new software and programming tools for it to become it useful.
Still, there is no indication that Intel has a response to the Cell chip in the works. On Monday, Intel said that it will begin selling personal computer microprocessors with two processors on a single chip by the summer.
But no one expects those chips to have anywhere near the processing power of the Cell, which will be made by IBM and Sony.
The Cell project also will have a significant impact on Los Altos-based Rambus, which designed the techniques for keeping the Cell processor fed with data.
Hence, for every Cell chip, Rambus is expected to get a slice of the revenues as royalties.
Analysts were intrigued that the Cell uses IBM technology that enables it to run any operating system.
Kevin Krewell, editor of the Microprocessor Report, said that raises the possibility that Apple Computer, which already uses the PowerPC design upon which Cell is based, could use the new chips in future Macintosh computers. Of course, winning over Apple might be considered a small ambition for the IBM-Sony-Toshiba alliance.
``Cell really represents a supercomputer on a chip,'' Kahle said.
