OS X’s Connection to the CELL Processor

This is an interesting read. The Cell processor, the IBM, Sony and Toshiba ’super chip’, could well be the next CPU for Apple’s hardware line-up.

Apple is already working with IBM and Sony; Sony President Kunitake Ando has said they are working with Apple on hardware (See Januarys Keynote speech). The Cell has also been announced for the Playstation 3 and ‘a Cell powered workstation’.

What does this mean if it is true? Apple’s CPU speed leaps up to 4.6 GHz in the first generation of Cell, this will only increase - if Cell is used as the core CPU. A huge leap of speed that pushes Apple hardware past the power of anything Intel currently has to offer.
What if it isn’t the core CPU though, what if the Cell will be the GPU. As anyone that follows Apple hardware knows, the GPU is the OS X workhorse, doing almost all the work needed to present the desktop and its effects: Scaling, shadows, expose, anti-aliasing and the rest of the eye candy.

Using Cell this would reduce the pull on the IBM G4/G5 CPU even more. It also adds something to the Apple line-up that they have always struggled with - Games.
The Cell CPU/GPU will power the Playstation 3, although Apple hardware will not run native Playstation 3 games - the hardware will still be very different - it brings one definite thing for Apple and one possibility.

The definite is that if Apple used the Cell as a GPU is will have the graphics power of the next generation consoles. Running games on that level of power will be a breeze. The possibility? I wonder how hard it would be to port Playstation 3 games across to the Apple. And if Apple used Cell as the next CPU and GPU … well this is all speculation and assumption based on hints and previous relationships between the companies.

Gran Turismo 5 on OS X? Yes please.

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