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Intel Terascale Brings 80 Cores To Your DesktopIf you were impressed with dual core technology and quad core processors seem a bit like overkill, how about Terascale processing with 80 cores? Sound far fetched? Intel doesn’t think so. Head on over to PCPerspective for the rest of the article. For our discussions here, the term “terascale” will refer to a processor with 32 or more cores. Moving away from the “large” cores seen in the Core 2 Duo and Athlon 64 lines from Intel and AMD, the cores in a terascale processor will be much simpler (kind of like we...

IBM demonstrated a blade server board based on the Cell architecture at the E3 show this week, and reportedly plans to sell the boards in rack-based server systems. The board carried two Cell processors running at up to 2.8Ghz, as well as 1GB of DRAM split across two chips, according to Nikkei’s TechOn service (http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20050525/105050/). The demo box ran on Linux.The chips have been clocked at 3GHz in the lab, according to an IBM engineer quoted by TechOn, meaning theoretical performance of 400Gflops for a two chip board. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the demo board featured chunky heatsinks and fans. However, IBM...

IBM Corp.'s design services unit has begun promoting the new Cell microprocessor, developed together with Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp., to potential users outside of the consumer electronics industry in which the chip is likely to first appear. IBM Engineering & Technology Services (E&TS) will offer companies looking to use the processor help in designing Cell-based hardware and systems, it said Wednesday. Cell was developed by the three companies and Sony-unit Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) as a high-power processor particularly suited to graphics applications and has been described by the development partners as a "supercomputer on a chip." Cell...

LOS ANGELES--Today saw the second of the big three console makers announce its next-generation platform. At its pre-E3 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment gave the world its first look at the PlayStation 3, as it is now officially called. While the device's price has not yet been set, its release window--spring 2006--has. Flanked by Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Kaz Hirai, SCE head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as a "supercomputer for computer entertainment." The name was not unexpected, since Sony had been running an extensive teaser-ad campaign prepping the public for the PlayStation 3. The company had laid...