The CELL is no more.

[Csonicgo]

The IBM CELL is dead.

Remember the Cell processor? That revolutionary CPU inside the PlayStation 3 and new whiz bang Toshiba CELL REGZA 55X1 HDTV? Well, it's being canned...
Primary developer IBM has pulled the plug on it, according to German website Heise Online, which has quoted the company's vice president of Deep Computing (cool title) David Turek as saying a next generation Cell processor will not be launched. A successor to the current PowerXCell-8i were due to have a pair of PowerPC processors and 32 SPEs, but now the 8i will be the end of the line.

Gizmodo is the only source that says that it ISN'T cancelled, but, PS3 Fanboys can be a menace.

I find it somewhat hilarious that no one expected this to happen. The CELL is hard to develop for, hard to produce (or, was) and just wasn't worth the effort and money.

From Erictric, this shows one reason why it may have been canned:

In comparison, even though the IBM Cell processor (PowerXCell-8i) ran at 3.2GHz, it was slower than Sun’s Niagara chip on complex computing problems. The Niagara, by the way, poked along at 1.4GHz. Granted, the Cell with it’s brute speed was faster than Sun’s Niagara when smaller problems come around. Still, when a chip clocked half as fast as you can run circles around you, you know there’s a problem.

:(

[Super Jamie]

And nothing of value was lost.

[david_a]

This news originally came from a terse German news report, so there's not a lot of info. The original news item said that "the future is hybrid." Sounds like it will live on as a heterogeneous core in some scary big-iron chip.

I'm not sure why this is really interesting news for sites like Gizmodo and Engadget. I guess Sony's hype machine for the PS3 made it sound like Cell was some magical CPU that was going to change the world, but I'm not sure IBM really thought so. It's sort of like a "super DSP" and performs great if the task is appropriate.

[Technician]

IBM has been dead since punch cards grew obsolete.

[pavera]

What does this mean for the PS3?

[Nomad]

Krispavera said:

What does this mean for the PS3?

Nothing? They're already widely produced. Just because development on the CELL based processors may or may not be discontinued doesn't mean PS3s will up and vanish. Just means that PS4s in all likelihood won't feature CELL based technology. :P

[pavera]

Figured that. Only asked cause I just got one like last year.

[david_a]

Nomad said:

Just means that PS4s in all likelihood won't feature CELL based technology. :P

Probably, but not necessarily... One option is to use a newer Cell chip (remember, the PS3 is 3 years old) or multiple ones.

Ars Technica has a good writeup on the end of the Cell from someone who actually knows something about CPUs (as opposed to those gadget blogs).

[Sharessa]

Never even heard of it before. Didn't it kill Goku or something?

[Use]

Chips come and go all the time. Not really a big deal. /me hugs his SH2 and SH4.

[david_a]

This whole story appears to be bunk anyway, since IBM says that it just canceled a particular chip and not the entire architecture. Hooray for sensationalist tech news.

[Super Jamie]

I thought the same thing. This is like saying "There will be no more 486s but we will use the technology to make something better".

[Udderdude]

People are quick to dump all over the CELL due to it's less than stunning performance in the PS3. But it was really just the wrong processor for the wrong application. CELL is great for scientific calculations and massive parallel data processing. It's pretty hilarious that the PS3's biggest claim to fame is completely destroying the folding@home rankings.

[exp(x)]

Yeah, I think Sony was kind of pissed that research institutions were making linux clusters out of them instead of buying games.

[Super Jamie]

US Customs also use them to crack encryption passwords.

[Maes]

exp(x) said:

Yeah, I think Sony was kind of pissed that research institutions were making linux clusters out of them instead of buying games.

Because it fucks up their market model, where the console is actually sold at a loss.

[TheeXile]

exp(x) said:

Yeah, I think Sony was kind of pissed that research institutions were making linux clusters out of them instead of buying games.

Which is a real shame, since now any future consoles will "learn" from that "mistake" and their shit will be more proprietary now.

[Udderdude]

TheeXile said:

Which is a real shame, since now any future consoles will "learn" from that "mistake" and their shit will be more proprietary now.

Or just not use processors designed for scientific research/number crunching.

[sparerib1968]

exp(x) said:

Yeah, I think Sony was kind of pissed that research institutions were making linux clusters out of them instead of buying games.

IMHO this only proves that Sony put too much cutting edge technology into PS3. At its current price it is a bargain in computing power. The only reason PS3 has struggled for success is because Wii and XBox were able to drastically undercut their price from the start.