IBM Corp. officially announces today (May 13) a next-generation version of its Cell processor, the first specifically geared for computer servers. The PowerXCell 8i will drive the Road Runner system now under test at Los Alamos National Labs to see if it can become the world’s first supercomputer to deliver sustained petaflops performance. Besides cracking the petaflops barrier, IBM hopes hundreds of users will decide to plug into their IBM servers a two-socket board housing the new Cell chips to deliver what IBM calls “supercomputing for the masses.”
IBM Shifts Cell to 65 Nanometers
May 13, 2008