TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced the start of sample shipping of the SpursEngine™ SE1000 (SpursEngine), a high-performance stream processor integrating four Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores derived from the "Cell Broadband Engine™" (Cell/B.E.™). Sample shipping started from today, and Toshiba expects sales of 6 million units within the first three years of the SpursEngine’s release.

SpursEngine is a co-processor that integrates a hardware codec for Full HD encoding and decoding of MPEG-2 and H.264 streams with four SPEs derived from Cell/B.E. These advanced processing elements offer high performance media streaming capabilities, with a clock frequency of 1.5GHz, while achieving low power consumption range of 10W to 20W.


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DJ IBM Japan To Extend Cell Chip's Use Beyond PS3 To PCs -Nikkei

TOKYO (Nikkei)--IBM Japan Ltd. plans to start selling the Cell high-performance microprocessor to new customers this month for use in computers, expanding the chip's applications beyond powering Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 3 video game console, The Nikkei reported in its Thursday morning edition.

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On Monday, Pat Gelsinger, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group previewed the press and analysts about the upcoming processor changes that Intel will be rolling out over the next couple of years. The main topics included Tukwila, Dunnington, Nehalem, "Visual Computing" and Larrabee. More details and maybe a bit of hyperbole are sure to follow at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in a couple of weeks.

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Intel's future graphics chip adding a new vector

Intel released a few incremental details about its future graphics chip on Monday, but left a lot of unanswered questions about the company's push into uncharted waters.

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At an ISSCC session yesterday afternoon, IBM announced details of a smaller, lower-power version of the Cell BE processor that powers Sony's PlayStation 3. The Cell BE is currently fabricated on IBM's 65nm SOI process, but IBM will soon move the console chip onto the company's much-ballyhooed, next-generation 45nm high-k process.

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Here's what happens when you take the powerful Cell microprocessor, the chip that sits at the heart of the PS3, and put it to use inside a television. It's impressive.

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Achieved 27 times faster on PLAYSTATION®3 Linux® than Intel® Core™2Duo

Fixstars Corporation today announced that the company developed the new"CVCell"module aiming to accelerate several important OpenCV*1 APIs for the Cell Broadband Engine™. CVCell achieved up to 27 times faster performance in image processing compared to Intel Core2Duo 2.4GHz.

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NEC Electronics and Toshiba Corp. on Monday said they would proceed to with 32nm fabrication process development without Sony Corp.’s participation. While the decision demonstrates commitment of both companies to semiconductor manufacturing, the destiny of 32nm technology alliance between Toshiba and IBM remains unclear.

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PS3 used to conduct over 1.4 billion MD5 calculations a second, says Kiwi researcher

Nick Breese, a senior security consultant at Auckland-based Security-assessment.com, has come up with a way to drastically increase the processing capability of cracking passwords.

By implementing common ciphers and hash functions using vector computing, Breese has pushed the current upper limit of 10–15 million cycles per second — in Intel-based architecture — up to 1.4 billion cycles per second.

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Reports suggest that Sony isn't going to take part in the future development of the much vaunted Cell processor that powers PlayStation 3.

Cell has cost Sony a lot of money – US$1.7 billion so far, and it looks like the company wants to recoup as much of its stake as possible.

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Oct 17 - Suffering from its exorbitant price point and a dearth of titles, Sony's PlayStation 3 isn't exactly the most popular gaming platform on the block. But while the console flounders in the commercial space, the PS3 may be finding a new calling in the realm of science and research.

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