PlayStation Meets Mainframe (In Second Life?)
Well, it isn't exactly PlayStation 3 meets the mainframe -- but it's close. The deal is that IBM has announced a project that integrates the Cell processor (developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba and used used in the PlayStation 3 game console) with the IBM mainframe.
To what end? According to IBM it is for the purpose of creating a hybrid that is blazingly fast and powerful, with security features designed to handle a new generation of "virtual world" applications (can you say "Second Life"?), such as the 3D Internet.
The project capitalizes on the mainframe's ability to accelerate work via "specialty processors," as well as its networking architecture, which makes possible the ultra-fast communication required to create virtual worlds with large numbers of simultaneous users sharing a single environment. IBM is launching the project in cooperation with with Hoplon Infotainment, a Brazilian online game company whose software is a key component of testing the capabilities of the new environment.
"As online environments increasingly incorporate aspects of virtual reality -- including 3D graphics and lifelike, real-time interaction among many simultaneous users -- companies of all types will need a computing platform that can handle a broad spectrum of demanding performance and security requirements," said Jim Stallings, general manager, IBM System z. "To serve this market, the Cell/B.E. processor is the perfect complement to the mainframe, the only server designed to handle millions of simultaneous users."
What IBM and Hoplon are planning on is an environment that can seamlessly run demanding simulations -- such as massive online virtual reality environments; 3D applications for mapping, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management; 3D virtual stores and meeting rooms; collaboration environments; and new types of data repositories. To achieve this goal, the workload will be parceled out between the mainframe and the Cell processor. The Cell will handle the complex simulation associated with operating in virtual worlds; for example, a ball thrown in a virtual reality world must obey the laws of gravity.
Well, it isn't exactly PlayStation 3 meets the mainframe -- but it's close. The deal is that IBM has announced a project that integrates the Cell processor (developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba and used used in the PlayStation 3 game console) with the IBM mainframe.
To what end? According to IBM it is for the purpose of creating a hybrid that is blazingly fast and powerful, with security features designed to handle a new generation of "virtual world" applications (can you say "Second Life"?), such as the 3D Internet.
The project capitalizes on the mainframe's ability to accelerate work via "specialty processors," as well as its networking architecture, which makes possible the ultra-fast communication required to create virtual worlds with large numbers of simultaneous users sharing a single environment. IBM is launching the project in cooperation with with Hoplon Infotainment, a Brazilian online game company whose software is a key component of testing the capabilities of the new environment.
"As online environments increasingly incorporate aspects of virtual reality -- including 3D graphics and lifelike, real-time interaction among many simultaneous users -- companies of all types will need a computing platform that can handle a broad spectrum of demanding performance and security requirements," said Jim Stallings, general manager, IBM System z. "To serve this market, the Cell/B.E. processor is the perfect complement to the mainframe, the only server designed to handle millions of simultaneous users."
What IBM and Hoplon are planning on is an environment that can seamlessly run demanding simulations -- such as massive online virtual reality environments; 3D applications for mapping, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management; 3D virtual stores and meeting rooms; collaboration environments; and new types of data repositories. To achieve this goal, the workload will be parceled out between the mainframe and the Cell processor. The Cell will handle the complex simulation associated with operating in virtual worlds; for example, a ball thrown in a virtual reality world must obey the laws of gravity.
There's more there. This might be the start of something interesting.
Off topically speaking, I'm also wondering if the upcoming multi-hundred core processors would enable, among other things, sim border crossing that are seamless because the handoff is all done on the same processor, same high speed cache, same main memory, etc. Maybe throw in some "solid state hard drive"s as well.