IBM, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., and Toshiba Unveil Details of the Cell Microprocessor

Finally, a little more information about the secretive Cell Microprocessor. It seems that we are beginning to find more and more information is being made available to us - finally. One interesting thing to note, by the way, this that it will be able to work with Linux.

IBM, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., (Sony and SCE together referred to as “Sony Group”) and Toshiba today announced the release of key documents that describe technical details of the revolutionary Cell Broadband Engine architecture. The documents are available at www.ibm.com and http://cell.scei.co.jp. Toshiba will release the documents once it completes its customer support structure.

Today’s announcement is the next major milestone in the Cell project, which began with the formation of the STI (Sony Group, Toshiba and IBM) Cell Design Center in Austin, Texas in March of 2001. High level technical specifications were released in much-anticipated papers delivered at San Francisco’s International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) in February 2005.

By opening up a wide set of detailed technical specifications to software developers, business partners, academic and research organizations, and potential customers, IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba continue their work to aggressively stimulate the creation of Cell-based applications. The goal: establish a thriving community of interest and innovation around Cell, allowing all interested parties to rapidly evaluate and utilize Cell technology. [Read the rest]