The Cell processor has begun product proliferation, with Mercury Computer Systems today announcing its Dual Cell-Based Blade.

The Dual Cell-Based Blade is Mercury’s first product based on the IBM Cell Broadband Engine processor, tipped in July. Mercury is partnering with IBM Engineering & Technology Services to integrate Cell technology into a range of products designed for applications in aerospace and defence, seismic, semiconductor test and medical imaging, as well as other markets.

The 1U blade server, based on IBM's BladeCenter design, will offer peak performance of 400 Gflops and feature two IBM Cell BE processors, as well as XDR memory from Rambus. The Dual Cell-Based Blade software environment will run on the Linux OS, and Mercury will provide the Eclipse-based open source software framework.

“We are delighted to get this product to market so quickly, and the Engineering & Technology Services unit at IBM has been instrumental in making this happen,” said Randy Dean, v-p of business and technology development at Mercury. “A number of customers are eager to have access to this breakthrough blade solution.

"Some of these customers plan to place the Dual Cell-Based Blade into production immediately, while others will leverage the system as an application development platform.”

The dual Cell blade will be available in the IBM BladeCenter platform. Up to seven blades can be linked in a 7U system to give 2.8 teraflops performance, said the firm.

Availability of an evaluation system is planned for Q1 2006, and production is planned for the following quarter. Mercury said initial orders for early-access systems are anticipated in the near-term.

www.mc.com