CELL based PCI-e video accelerator

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04-08-2008, 01:03 PM
Nedjo

CELL based PCI-e video accelerator

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechConnect

Announced last year, Toshiba's SpursEngine SE1000 stream processor has now begun being sampled and sent to potential customers. Based around the PlayStation 3-famed CPU, the Cell Broadband Engine, SE1000 features four Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores and is basically a co-processor that integrates a hardware codec for Full HD encoding and decoding of MPEG-2 and H.264 streams.

Processor:
http://www.tcmagazine.com/images/new..._SE1000_01.jpg

The card:
http://www.tcmagazine.com/images/new..._SE1000_02.jpg

source:
http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.p...=19117&catid=2
04-08-2008, 01:08 PM
nullface

w00t this could boost Folding big time :D
04-08-2008, 01:14 PM
JAWS

I love CELL technology. it's the one and only spec I like about the PS3.
04-08-2008, 01:16 PM
GAR

hmmm.....now what can we gamers use this card for??
04-08-2008, 01:25 PM
nullface

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAR

hmmm.....now what can we gamers use this card for??

AFAIK, based on the article... zero!
04-08-2008, 01:31 PM
ownage

Quote:

Originally Posted by nullface

AFAIK, based on the article... zero!

Not important. It only has to be capable of folding :D If it does I definitely buy one.
04-08-2008, 01:32 PM
triple_A

Isn't cell very suitable for physics calculations?
04-08-2008, 01:35 PM
Bobsama

You can crunch while you game... for one... :p:
04-08-2008, 01:35 PM
Nedjo

Quote:

Originally Posted by nullface

w00t this could boost Folding big time :D

With appropriate drivers who knows… but then again for powerful Folding accelerator you can use latest ATi card with available Folding drivers
04-08-2008, 01:56 PM
Frank M

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nedjo

The card:
http://www.tcmagazine.com/images/new..._SE1000_02.jpg

For their sake, I hope this is just a prototype card and not final.
From the number of components and traces, this could fit in half-height -
then it could be used in blades; with this over-full-height format, it will
only fit with risers or into towers.
04-08-2008, 01:58 PM
DilTech

The cell is one of the strongest chips for ray-tracing...
04-08-2008, 02:03 PM
Frodin

Perhaps they need alle the PCB real estate to place a humongous cooler?:D
04-08-2008, 02:11 PM
xlink

anyone else notice that ti's PCI-e 1x
04-08-2008, 03:10 PM
happychappy

Quote:

Originally Posted by xlink

anyone else notice that ti's PCI-e 1x

Pretty hard to miss:D

but yeah, looks interesting to say the least
04-08-2008, 03:17 PM
MuffinFlavored

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engadget

Toshiba just pushed its SpursEngine co-processor chip out the door for sampling. Derived from the Cell processor at the heart of Sony's PS3, the SpursEngine SE1000 contains 4 processor cores (not 8 like the Cell) and a hardware codec for encoding and decoding MPEG-2/H.264 video. It's designed to manhandle real-time graphics processing and video manipulation when used in a potent three-way with your computer's CPU and GPU. The processor is expected to cost as little as $50 by the time it appears in the first consumer electronics devices -- likely graphics cards -- early next year. A very good thing if the production experience is anything like the demonstrations we've seen.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/t...r-for-testing/
04-08-2008, 03:22 PM
K404

If it folds and if multiplie cards can be used, im interested :D
04-08-2008, 03:36 PM
Gen

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownage

Not important. It only has to be capable of folding :D If it does I definitely buy one.

depending on price i would definetly be interested, makes me kinda mad my 8800gtx is sitting unused most of the time :shakes:
04-08-2008, 04:39 PM
grimREEFER

they cant even get folding working on modern graphics cards lol
04-08-2008, 04:55 PM
KoHaN69

PS3 emulator, step one :D
04-08-2008, 05:11 PM
safan80

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoHaN69

PS3 emulator, step one :D

step 2: ????

step 3: profit!
04-08-2008, 05:15 PM
Vapor

Quote:

Originally Posted by safan80

step 2: ????

step 3: profit!

Gnomes!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

H.264 encoder card? Sign me up!
04-08-2008, 05:21 PM
Frank M

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frodin

Perhaps they need alle the PCB real estate to place a humongous cooler?:D

Another article says it's between 10 and 20W, so no :)
04-08-2008, 06:12 PM
Mechromancer

Quote:

Originally Posted by nullface

w00t this could boost Folding big time :D

EXACTLY what I thought when I saw the card. If its cheap enough, It'll just be another tool to increase my damn PPD!
04-08-2008, 06:17 PM
Monkeywoman

so this means that toshiba will also be releasing their cell based TVs and Lappys soon....boo-ya
04-08-2008, 07:42 PM
nn_step

Now this I can definitely see a use for :D (soon we'll have teraflop PCs :D )
04-08-2008, 08:47 PM
dinos22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vapor

H.264 encoder card? Sign me up!

Meeeeeeeeeee tooooooooooooo :shocked:
04-08-2008, 08:54 PM
STEvil

needs more SPE's and ability to put multiple cell cpu's on each card lol ;)
04-08-2008, 09:40 PM
safan80

now nobody can say the 1x pci-e slot has no uses lol.
04-08-2008, 09:51 PM
Neova

Interesting but needs a "killer app" to help sell the thing and build up support for it.

Hate to see it go the way of the PPU.
04-09-2008, 02:45 AM
BulldogPO

H.264 hardware encoding sounds sweet :)

But this is cripled version of CELL?
We need 4 of those in one card so crunching will be fun :D
Can QMC be Cruched with CELL?
04-09-2008, 04:25 AM
strange|ife

very cool, but have a feeling this is just a ruff prototype. Great concept though, the next few years will be interesting to say the least.

1x pcie? 4x will need to be used at least imo, 2.5Gbps is too little headroom for any serious computations, but for hd encoding should just be right on the mark, still extra headroom from 4x or even 8x slot would be bestt
04-09-2008, 08:03 AM
Yakyb

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinos22

Meeeeeeeeeee tooooooooooooo :shocked:

thats what i thought at first

Maybe depends how quick it is.
how much faster would it be over a q6600?
04-09-2008, 08:20 AM
shiznit93

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAWS

I love CELL technology. it's the one and only spec I like about the PS3.

Cell is very nice, the FAH numbers on PS3 are just insane, they are over a Petaflop now. RSX is g7x garbage (man I hate that texture shimmering) and much weaker than Xenos, and 360 has the better controller. I hate Xbox Live so I couldn't care less about that, but BluRay is very nice and they PS3 has mandatory HD caching for every game and is damn quiet compared to my blender of a 360.
04-09-2008, 08:45 AM
Nicksterr

I'm confused...how can this card be utilized in a PC?
04-09-2008, 09:18 AM
Frodin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank M

Another article says it's between 10 and 20W, so no :)

I am terribly glad my speculation was wrong, with that low tdp it should be pretty easy to cool it passively. With a humongous fanless cooler, lol.
04-09-2008, 11:46 AM
generics_user

Quote:

Originally Posted by shiznit93

Cell is very nice, the FAH numbers on PS3 are just insane, they are over a Petaflop now. RSX is g7x garbage (man I hate that texture shimmering) and much weaker than Xenos, and 360 has the better controller. I hate Xbox Live so I couldn't care less about that, but BluRay is very nice and they PS3 has mandatory HD caching for every game and is damn quiet compared to my blender of a 360.

true my 360 is loud as well, but luckily only qhile gaming (and i don't care about it when doing so, my 3870s run @ 80% in 3D (and that is REALLY loud)

hmm need more pciex1 slots (3rd x16 + x1 in use, only pci left) to use this, and a blu-ray drive
04-09-2008, 11:59 AM
deathman20

Cool.. would be great for a HTPC. For a general gaming rig probably not the best for, but then again it might work and reduce the load on the CPU/GPU alot. Not bad for a lower powered solution.
04-09-2008, 12:43 PM
SafeFire

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neova

Interesting but needs a "killer app" to help sell the thing and build up support for it.
Hate to see it go the way of the PPU.

LISTEN UP

It's a CELL based add in card, don't you come talking about a killer application (and don't you even DARE call it killer app).
IT IS POWERFUL AND CAN FOLD, that's all it needs
04-09-2008, 12:50 PM
Mechromancer

Maybe ATI or Nvidia will enable video encoding on their cards to compete. That would be nice. Either way, I can't wait to see it get hacked so we can fold on it or emulate a weak PS3. This kind of device is fodder for the hacker community.
04-09-2008, 01:53 PM
fredthemule

Last August it was announced that both Side Effects and mental images are working with Sony in developing their new Cell Computing Board, supposedly due to be demonstrated in the second half of 2008. This seems like an altogether meatier offering. Though since that announcement, mental images was bought-out by nvidia, so who knows what the latest is there.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?opti...=869&Itemid=55
http://www.mentalimages.com/1_1_news...te/070808.html

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