IBM to Deploy Cell Processor in Blades

The Cell processor that will power the PlayStation 3 game console will also be available in high-density blade servers, IBM said this week. The new processor, developed with Sony and Toshiba, will be targeted for use in gaming animation and movie conputer-generated special effects for films, as well as other tasks that require massive amounts of computing power.

“It’s not going to be a general-purpose computer,” Tim Dougherty, IBM’s director of Blade Centre strategy, told the Associated Press. “But for certain things, it is incredible and it will make orders of magnitude difference.” In addition to CGI animation, the Cell-powered blades also may be used in life sciences research, which often includes modeling and simulations that require enormous computing resources.

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About Rich Miller

Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.