IBM Opens 'Cell' Talent Pool
IBM
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took another step in expanding the number of products using its Cell processor Wednesday, offering up its engineers to help custom-design the microchip into new hardware, like blade servers and networking devices.
The program is focused on aerospace, defense, industrial and medical customers and is designed to take advantage of Cell's graphics capabilities. Wednesday's announcement is part of a broader effort by IBM to provide services that help businesses improve processes and performance.
The Cell chip has been
touted as ideal for a wide range of devices, everything from servers to home computers to portable electronic devices. It was co-developed by IBM,
Toshiba
and
Sony
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and will make its initial appearance in the Sony PlayStation 3 in 2006.
IBM said customers can gain access to information and design expertise through its engineering and technology services group, which has 1,300 engineers and a number of design centers around the world. The group counts Boeing, Sprint, the Mayo Clinic, and Marthaon Oil among its customers.
Fred Zieber, president of market research firm Pathfinder, said this announcement is important in expanding Cell's use by companies other than the three that developed it. "This is a significant move in the sense that it opens up the Cell architecture to a broader world of applications," he said.
More important, however, could be the signal that this announcement sends regarding where the Cell processor is heading.
The world's largest technology companies are vying to be prime suppliers of consumer electronics products inside of increasingly digitized homes.
Intel
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,
Advanced Micro Devices
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,
Microsoft
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,
Samsung
, and the Cell players all are pushing their product lines into this environment, which is seen as the next great gold mine in the IT landscape.
Cell's versatility would seem to set the processor up to be front and center in a digital home environment. Besides the PlayStation 3, Toshiba intends to use the chip in a high-definition TV next year. Wednesday's announcement was notable for its lack of focus on the consumer electronics market.
"IBM will be very careful not to step on the toes of Sony and Toshiba," Zieber says, adding that a Cell-based consumer electronics product remains an option for the three companies in the future.
Expect to here more about Cell's direction in the future: "Clearly, there is a war going on for control of the living room," Zieber says, "and
Cell is part of the ammunition."