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Rambus FlexIO™ processor bus and XDR™ memory technologies to be integrated into future Cell Broadband Engine processor-based products |
Rambus Inc. has signed a technology license agreement with IBM®. This agreement allows IBM to build Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) processors and companion chips using Rambus’ FlexIO™ processor bus and XDR™ memory interface technologies. Rambus’ high-speed FlexIO and XDR interfaces in combination with IBM’s advanced process technology will enable Cell BE system customers to maximize the performance of high-volume consumer products, servers and high-performance computing systems.
The Cell BE processor, jointly developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Group, is a breakthrough architectural design featuring eight synergistic processing elements plus a Power Architecture-based core that provides unmatched performance levels in many computationally intense applications. The Cell BE processor has peak performance in excess of 200 GFLOPS - which equates to 200 billion floating-point operations per second - as measured during initial hardware testing.
The Rambus XDR memory interface and FlexIO processor bus account for 90% of the Cell BE processor signal pins, providing an unprecedented aggregate processor I/O bandwidth of approximately 100 gigabytes-per-second. The Rambus XDR memory interface connecting to XDR DRAMs achieves data rates of 3.2GHz to 8.0GHz. FlexIO processor buses, formerly codenamed Redwood, are capable of running up to 8.0GHz data rates, providing bandwidth more than four times faster than best-of-class processor buses available today. All Rambus high-speed interfaces are developed as complete solutions for high-volume, low-cost systems.
Cell Broadband Engine Computer from IBM IBM® introduced a blade computing system based on the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell BE). The IBM branded Cell BE-based system is designed for businesses that need the dense computing power and unique capabilities of the Cell BE processor to tackle tasks involving graphic-intensive, numeric applications.
IBM Releases Development Software for Cell BE Microprocessor Full System Simulator for the CBE Processor -- The IBM Full System Simulator executable provides a rich set of capabilities for architecture simulation of the CBE processor. The extensive set of simulation services available are capable of booting and running an operating system as well as applications targeted to the CBE processor. This is the very same simulator used by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM to evaluate the architecture design point and prepare a full execution stack for trial runs on the first CBE processor.
Cell BE Documentation The Cell Broadband Engine Architecture -- defines a processor structure directed toward distributed processing and multimedia applications. The architecture contains a control processor based on the Power Architecture, augmented with multiple high-performance SIMD Synergistic Processor Units and a rich set of DMA commands for efficient communications among processing elements.
The Cell Processor The Cell processor, developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Group, is a breakthrough architectural design featuring eight synergistic processing elements plus a Power Architecture™-based core that provides unmatched performance levels in many computationally intense applications. The Cell processor has peak performance in excess of 200 GFLOPS - which equates to 200 billion floating-point operations per second - as measured during initial hardware testing.
