Will Apple use the Cell processor?

Apple logo The new Cell microprocessor announced by IBM, Sony and Toshiba on Monday promises a paradigm shift in processing power. Eight synergistic processing centers can simultaneously execute 10 instruction sequences, as compared to Intel’s two today. It is expected to be able to handle multiple operating system and high-bandwidth applications running simultaneously.

It is computer nirvana.

What do you think - will Apple start using this chip in its Macs? A strategic partnership with Sony may insinuate that this may indeed be what Steve Jobs and Co. have in mind, and would explain the easy self-confidence at proclaiming 2005 the “Year of HD,” considering how much bandwidth and processing power you’d want to have around to really smoothly process high-definition data…

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The new Cell microprocessor announced by IBM, Sony and Toshiba on Monday promises a paradigm shift in processing power. Eight synergistic...

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David Every

I wrote my own summary of the cell processor and what it means to Apple. http://www.igeek.com/CellProcessor.pdf http://homepage.mac.com/dke/.cv/dke/Public/CellProcessor.pdf-binhex.hqx http://www.mymac.com/fileupload/CellProcessor.pdf

February 12 2005 at 6:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Electric Monk

The Cell processor is great... But. The Altivec/VMX sucks on it. Apple is way to heavily invested in Altivec. Using a Cell processor in addition to a G5 seems possible, but in the short to medium term instead of is not really a possibility.

February 09 2005 at 2:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Pedro

While I would much rather see the PowerPC base of processors continue going on... anything that is better for speed gets a thumbs up from me.

February 09 2005 at 1:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

KIVERS

I absolutely see Apple adopting the cell processor, but I don't think we'll see it until sometime in 2006 at the earliest.

February 09 2005 at 1:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hawks5999

It would make sense that they are clearing out their inventory of G4 processors by putting them into Mac Minis so that they can start to build around the Cell processor. I'm hoping they go this way. It would put an end to the misleading Mhz comparisons between Apple and Wintel

February 09 2005 at 1:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

PXLated

There's all kinds of conflicting opinions on this. I happen to enjoy the series on... http://www.macsimumnews.com ...by Neo. If you haven't read the posts, do, well worth the time :-)

February 09 2005 at 1:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply