The Cell microprocessor that is used by PlayStation 3 console will be available in IBM mainframe computers so those high-performance machines can run complex games.

Cell is a microprocessor architecture developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM, an alliance known as "STI."

"Cell combines a general-purpose Power Architecture core of modest performance with streamlined coprocessing elements which greatly accelerate multimedia and vector processing applications, as well as many other forms of dedicated computation."

Cell chip is considered by many as a "supercomputer on a chip" because of its unusual design which includes one central processing unit helped by 8 additional processors working on specific tasks.
This unic architecture, made Cell microprocessor limited to specialized hardware for graphics-intensive functions such as military or medical applications.

"Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and financial transaction processing."
Since mainframes can run multiple processors and operating systems at once, IBM has encouraged customers to perform a wider variety of computing functions on them.
The implementation of Cell chips on IBM mainframes "opens up some new potential frontiers," said Charles King of Pund-IT Research.

You can read here more about Cell chip possible applications.

written by Cristian L.