IBM seeks to tap CELL’s potential

Last month, IBM selected University of Illinois Computer Science Professor Laxmikant “Sankay” Kale, the head of the department’s Parallel Programming Laboratory and Marc Snir, head of the UI Computer Science Department for a Shared University Research program involving nine universities worldwide to work on expanding the uses for the Cell processor.

Kale’s lab is most famous for creating Charm++, a programming system that manages the computing work in parallel processing environments. Charm++ allows researchers using supercomputers to concentrate on their research questions instead of getting their computer to work properly.

Proponents of Cell technology cite that it offers an advantage in faster and more direct control over the movement of data to keep processors constantly busy. In theory, a bunch of Cell processors clustered together could yield 50 times the peak performance of the same-sized regular PC cluster.

The News-Gazette reports that research does have its limits though. Kale and co. may have access to the Cell technology and the special tools working with it. Thing is, they haven’t received a PS3 …yet.

Via The News-Gazette

Last month, IBM selected University of Illinois Computer Science Professor Laxmikant “Sankay” Kale, the head of the department’s Parallel Programming Laboratory and Marc Snir, head of the UI Computer Science Department for a Shared University Research program involving nine universities worldwide to work on expanding the uses for the Cell processor.

Kale’s lab is most famous for creating Charm++, a programming system that manages the computing work in parallel processing environments. Charm++ allows researchers using supercomputers to concentrate on their research questions instead of getting their computer to work properly.

Proponents of Cell technology cite that it offers an advantage in faster and more direct control over the movement of data to keep processors constantly busy. In theory, a bunch of Cell processors clustered together could yield 50 times the peak performance of the same-sized regular PC cluster.

The News-Gazette reports that research does have its limits though. Kale and co. may have access to the Cell technology and the special tools working with it. Thing is, they haven’t received a PS3 …yet.

Via The News-Gazette