Author: Jorge Pichard
Date: 15:43:16 01/22/04
Can you Imagine what the ChessMaster can do with the future PlayStation 3!
What's behind Cell?
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chips/0,39020354,2120395,00.htm
http://nkcp.zive.net/kokoro/archives/001146.html
While the processor's design is still under wraps, the companies say Cell's
capabilities will allow it to deliver one trillion calculations per second
(teraflop) or more of floating-point calculations. It will have the ability to
do north of 1 trillion mathematical calculations per second, roughly 100 times
more than a single Pentium 4 chip running at 2.5GHz.
Cell will likely use between four and 16 general-purpose processor cores per
chip. A game console might use a chip with 16 cores, while a less complicated
device like a set-top box would have a processor with fewer, said Peter
Glaskowsky, editor in chief of influential industry newsletter Microprocessor
Report. Some of these cores might perform computational functions, while others
could control audio or graphics.
But not everyone thinks this approach is groundbreaking, given that some
processors already use inter-chip multiprocessing. "I just don't see that Cell
is revolutionary, except in its marketing impact," Glaskowsky said
Indeed, a host of other chipmakers produce chips -- known as system-on-a-chip
processors -- that use multiple processor cores to power systems ranging from
networking equipment and automobile electronics devices to cellular phones.
IBM entered the dual-processor core market with the Power4, the first server
processor to use a multiple-core design. Power4 pairs two 64-bit PowerPC cores
on the same processor, linked by a high-speed communications pathway.
But efforts to create similar, more generic multiple-core processors --
including MAJC (pronounced "magic"), a very similar effort by Sun Microsystems
-- have missed their intended mark.
The first MAJC chip was originally slated for multimedia processing, a job
similar to Cell's. But instead of selling the chip to set-top box and game
machine manufacturers, Sun repositioned the dual 500MHz MAJC 5200 chip as a
high-end graphics processor for workstations.
Software -- the road ahead
While Cell's hardware design might be difficult, it's creating software for the
chip that will be the trickiest part of establishing it in the market.
"It's going to take an enormous amount of software development," Doherty said.
"We believe the chip architecture is going to be on time and ahead of the
software wizardry that is going to really make it get up and dance."
Furthermore, creating an operating system and set of applications that can take
advantage of the Cell's multiprocessing and peer-to-peer computing capabilities
will be the key to determining if Cell will be successful, he said.
Knowing this, the three chip partners have so far set a goal of crafting Cell as
a system, creating operating system and application software alongside Cell
hardware.
Cell's designers are engineering the chip to work with a wide range of operating
systems, including Linux.
But the chip triumvirate is also developing a purpose-built Cell operating
system and applications, which Cell's developers will use to test the chip's
various features, such as its multimedia processing capabilities. They are also
likely to form the basis of a Cell software development kit and also the Cell OS
and applications for end-devices, such as game systems, sources said.
Still work to do
While much of the work on Cell is complete, there's still a lot left to do.
Together, the hardware and software teams will continue testing the chip's inner
workings. The last stage of development work, which still lies ahead, includes
completing circuit layout and then eventually testing actual sample chips.
IBM is expected to begin manufacturing Cell as soon as 2004 or possibly early
2005. But as with many other details about the chip, Kahle will confirm only
that the Cell project is on track to meet its 2005 schedule, which was set forth
at its initial announcement.
The rest of the chip's schedule is a secret, at least for now, he said.
[Event "Computer Schach Partie"]
[Site "Jorge's Place"]
[Date "2004.01.22"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ruffian_105"]
[Black "ChessMaster PS2"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C64"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez"]
[Time "22:07:31"]
[Variation "Classical Defence, Charousek Variation"]
[TimeControl "0+5"]
[Termination "normal"]
[PlyCount "132"]
[WhiteType "Athlon 1200 GHz"]
[BlackType "PlayStation 2 @ 295 MHz"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 Bb6 5.O-O Nge7 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5
9.Bg5 f6 10.Ne5 O-O 11.Nxc6 Qd6 12.Nxa7 Rxa7 13.Bc1 Qb4 14.Bd3 Qxd4 15.Qc2 f5
16.Re1
Be6 17.a3 Nb4 18.axb4 Rxa1 19.Rxe6 Rxb1 20.Re3 Qxe3 21.Qb3+ Kh8 22.fxe3 Rxc1+
23.Kf2 f4 24.Qe6 Rc6 25.Qe5 fxe3+ 26.Kg3 Rd6 27.Be4 e2 28.Bf3 Rg6+ 29.Kh3 Rh6+
30.Kg3
Bg1 31.h4 Rxh4 32.Qxe2 Rh6 33.Kg4 Rg6+ 34.Kh3 Rgf6 35.Bxb7 Rh6+ 36.Kg4 Bf2
37.Qe7
Rh4+ 38.Qxh4 Bxh4 39.Kxh4 Rf4+ 40.g4 Rxb4 41.Bc6 Rxb2 42.Kg5 Rb4 43.Kh4 g6
44.Bf3 c5
45.Kg3 c4 46.g5 c3 47.Bd1 Rb2 48.Kg4 Rg2+ 49.Kf4 c2 50.Bxc2 Rxc2 51.Kg3 Kg7
52.Kf3 Kf7
53.Kg3 Ke6 54.Kf4 Rc4+ 55.Ke3 Kf5 56.Kd3 Rf4 57.Ke2 Kxg5 58.Ke3 h5 59.Kd3 h4
60.Ke2 h3
61.Kd3 h2 62.Kd2 h1=Q 63.Kc2 Qg2+ 64.Kc3 Qh3+ 65.Kd2 Rf2+ 66.Ke1 Qf1# {Mate}
0-1
Here is the Final Position of the second WOW!
[D]8/8/6p1/6k1/8/8/5r2/4Kq2 w - - 8 67
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Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.