Path to understanding Cell continues...
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 10, 2005 2:34 PM EST- Posted in
- Anand
I've been doing tons of research on Cell these past few days, and I'm finally getting somewhere beyond what's been talked about since ISSCC. There are still big gaps that aren't being filled, such as the programming model for Cell, but I get the impression that I'm going to have to wait for the developer's guide to Cell before I can get my hands on that type of information.
In terms of the architecture, implementation and potential uses for it, I've got a number of theories that I'll be putting into article form hopefully before the end of next week. I've been lucky enough to have some very important and knowledgeable industry folks help me (anonymously of course) with a few theories on the architecture which should make the piece even more interesting.
In other news, my Mac HTPC article is basically done, I'm just polishing up a bit on iMovie HD (I had no where else to put it, and I promised I'd provide some first-hand user comments) and then I've got a handful of images to edit up. After that article is done with, the next Mac piece will be a G5/mini/PowerBook memory roundup, mostly looking at things from a compatibility and price standpoint as there's no real Mac memory overclocking potential out there :) I'm hoping this article will serve as a guide to give people options for memory upgrades other than Apple, especially considering that other than the new PowerBooks, all base Macs come with no more than 256MB of memory.
On the PC side of things, Part II of Johan's Quest for More Processing Power series should be published before the end of the month. We've also got an article on AMD's NUMA architecture, some new Intel workstation and desktop processors, as well as the first part of a long awaited SFF roundup coming before the end of this month.
In terms of the architecture, implementation and potential uses for it, I've got a number of theories that I'll be putting into article form hopefully before the end of next week. I've been lucky enough to have some very important and knowledgeable industry folks help me (anonymously of course) with a few theories on the architecture which should make the piece even more interesting.
In other news, my Mac HTPC article is basically done, I'm just polishing up a bit on iMovie HD (I had no where else to put it, and I promised I'd provide some first-hand user comments) and then I've got a handful of images to edit up. After that article is done with, the next Mac piece will be a G5/mini/PowerBook memory roundup, mostly looking at things from a compatibility and price standpoint as there's no real Mac memory overclocking potential out there :) I'm hoping this article will serve as a guide to give people options for memory upgrades other than Apple, especially considering that other than the new PowerBooks, all base Macs come with no more than 256MB of memory.
On the PC side of things, Part II of Johan's Quest for More Processing Power series should be published before the end of the month. We've also got an article on AMD's NUMA architecture, some new Intel workstation and desktop processors, as well as the first part of a long awaited SFF roundup coming before the end of this month.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
13 Comments
View All Comments
nath - Monday, February 14, 2005 - link
Anand, I would like to commend you on your blogs. They are one of the better ones you find on the net.gbc02 - Saturday, February 12, 2005 - link
Found some.http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/1218...
gbc02 - Saturday, February 12, 2005 - link
I want to hear more about the new HP XW9300 workstations.They seem pretty reasonable, cost/performance.
johnsonx - Friday, February 11, 2005 - link
@#9:No, NUMA isn't applicable to A64's at all. But it's very applicable to Opteron's, whether they be single or dual core. It will become even more applicable once the 64-bit version of Windows ships; since 64-bit XP is based on the 2003 server core, presumably that means a dual-opteron workstation running 64-bit XP will be able to take advantage of NUMA (unless Microsoft decides, in their infinite wisdom, to disable NUMA and various other bits in the kernel used for XP 64-bit).
The question of course is: what kinds of applications can benefit from NUMA? I'm guessing that for most general purpose servers and workstations, NUMA will neither help nor hinder much at all. But there will be some things that NUMA will help with... Anandtech can tell us those...
Rand - Friday, February 11, 2005 - link
Not that I'm complaining but isn't this a bit of an odd timing to be writing about AMD's NUMA architecture.I'd have expected such an article when the Opteron first launched..., and it's not really a[pplicable to AMD's dual core A64's.
In any case I'm particulaly looking forward to Johan's next article.
Andy - Friday, February 11, 2005 - link
NUMA NUMA AI! NUMA NUMA NUMA AI!johnsonx - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Looking forward to the NUMA article. I've installed several dual-opteron Win2k3 servers (the sort with proper server boards that have 8 RAM slots), and have been unable to determine whether NUMA or node-interleaving yields better performance. I don't have time for benchmarking myself, but that's why I read Anandtech...Eric Everman - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Speaking of LCDs, I've *never* seen a review of Apple's cinema displays that gives a way to compare them to non-Apple displays. Apple charges a premium for their displays, are they worth it when Dell is making some LCDs with great spec's?Peter Kovacs - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Hi Anand,I got a Powerbook of the old generation and I may be swapping it for cheap to the new one. I'm considering an external LCD monitor. It may be nice to have a high-end LCD round-up in the 20 + inch range. Including the Viewsonics but also maybe the Apple ones. Also do you forsee new 20+ LCD comming out for reasonable prices?
Ciao
Peter
erik - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Anand, don't work yourself to death. Take it easy. Don't work on weekends for example. It's the wise path in the long run.