On Sun, 23 Jan 2005, Walter Dnes wrote: > "The Cell" has been vapourware for a while. However, the STI group > (Sony/Toshiba/IBM) have recently been granted a patent for it, so there > is actual info available now. Nicholas Blachford has a very good > writeup at http://www.blachford.info/computer/Cells/Cell0.html where he > discusses it in detail. The only part I don't like is "Unfortunately > the patent reads like it was written by a robotic lawyer running Gentoo > in text mode, you don't so much read it as decipher it".<G> I resemble > that remark, composing this email in mutt in a real text console.
I've read it and it's a lot of "speculative" guesses. Only time will tell if this thing really delivers. The PS2 was supposed to be *really* fast too... > 1) Built-in DRM. The "S" in "STI Group" is Sony, who have a lot of > media properties and "intellectual property". If they try to turn it > into a "Fritz-chip" by having the DRM code unblockable, it's going to > hurt sales. Remember the Pentium III serial number fiasco? If sony has anything to do with this I bet they are gonna have some sort of drm hardware on board the PS3. Hopefully ibm takes this chip serious enough to not put such crap on the cell chip. > very afraid of Cell in the long run. Linux must be kept... > a) portable, and I consider this obvious but maybe it's not... > b) lean and mean enough to run speedily on CPUs other than Cell. I > hope that the Microsoft fanbois developing the GNOME and KDE > "desktops" take this to heart. Hear, hear! One of the reasons I avoid these desktop environments is that the dependencies are ridiculous and some apps/daemons are *really* annoying (gconfd, nautilus). Best regards Peter K -- We Can Put an End to Word Attachments: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
