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.
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