Page 1 of 1
IBM's efforts to write Cell's compiler ...
Posted: 2006-02-26 09:55am
by phongn
Ars linked to a
25-page paper by IBM summarizing their work on writing a compiler for the Cell (the
Octopiler).
This article is technical in nature but is fairly interesting.
Posted: 2006-02-26 09:58am
by Ace Pace
I've read the Ars summery and it dosn't look good, the PS3 initially won't be anything as impressive as it will be later on.
Posted: 2006-02-26 05:36pm
by Durandal
This isn't anything I haven't been saying for a while. People wanking over the Cell need to realize just how different it is from today's mostly single-threaded world, and even from conventional multi-threading. The Cell is basically a non-deterministic computer up to N possible states. That means it expands to a deterministic machine of exponentially greater complexity.
Posted: 2006-02-26 05:46pm
by Admiral Valdemar
Ace Pace wrote:I've read the Ars summery and it dosn't look good, the PS3 initially won't be anything as impressive as it will be later on.
Can you say not that for every console in history? It stands to reason that time will enable developers to produce better games, the PSX started with
Tekken using barely 10% of the system's ability. By the end,
Tekken 3 was near 100%.
Posted: 2006-02-26 06:09pm
by Durandal
Admiral Valdemar wrote:Ace Pace wrote:I've read the Ars summery and it dosn't look good, the PS3 initially won't be anything as impressive as it will be later on.
Can you say not that for every console in history? It stands to reason that time will enable developers to produce better games, the PSX started with
Tekken using barely 10% of the system's ability. By the end,
Tekken 3 was near 100%.
The Cell is on a totally different level. It's not just a matter of learning the specific quirks of optimization for a new architecture, it's learning to program in an entirely different way.
Posted: 2006-02-26 06:29pm
by Admiral Valdemar
Well, the guys who stayed with Sony knew what to expect, and given the only easy console by them to code for was the Net Yaroze, it's not like this is an amazingly new development.
Posted: 2006-02-26 07:16pm
by Arthur_Tuxedo
Looks like Sony's really left holding the bag of shit, here. IBM and Sony both contributed to the development costs, and IBM could see substantial benefit with cell-based servers and supercomputers years down the line, while Sony's console is probably going to be delayed and nowhere near as impressive as the competition at launch. Ouch.