The Cell microprocessor is going into laptops. Toshiba will use it in versions of its Qosmio laptops which start selling next month in Japan.

Developed in a four year programme costing $400m between 2001 and 2005 by Toshiba, Sony and IBM, the Cell processor has only been extensively used in PlayStation 3

However, following Toshiba's take-over of much of Sony's semiconductor business last year, it seems that Toshiba's right to sell the Cell have been freed up.

Last year, Toshiba announced it would be selling Cell as a discrete chip under the name SpursEngine.

While the Qosmio laptops will still use an Intel Core 2 Duo to run the OS, Cell will do intensive processing tasks such as upscaling standard-definition video to high definition, transcoding, in real-time, digital TV to MPEG4, and burning video to DVD.

Faces can be recognized by Cell-enabled Qosmios and displayed as thumbnail images to create a visual index allowing you to can find the person or scene you want to replay.

The Cell-enabled Qosmios will cost upwards of $2,300. The Cell processors run at 1.5GHz, but power consumption of the Cell-enabled Qosmios is not released.

See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows. Sign up for the Mannerisms eNewsletter.