IBM, Sony and Toshiba announced the much-anticipated Cell microprocessor, containing a multicore, multithreaded gaming engine described as “a supercomputer on a chip.”Cell is expected to be the chip used in Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console, and its performance should reach 10 times the capability of current PC processors, IDG News Service reported. However, its uses will burgeon as others are drawn to its capabilities. “We are confident that Cell will provide major momentum for the progress of digital convergence, as a core device sustaining a whole spectrum of advanced information-rich broadband applications, from consumer electronics, home entertainment through various industrial systems,” Masashi Muromachi, corporate vice president of Toshiba Corp. and president and CEO of Toshiba’s Semiconductor Company, said in a statement.The prototype chip, discussed Monday at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, is comprised of one 64-bit Power PC processor core and eight separate processing cores that the companies call “synergistic processing elements,” or SPEs, IDG News Service said. The cores can support multiple operating systems and programming models through the use of virtualization technologies, said Jim Kahle, director of technology at the Design Center for Cell Technology, and an IBM fellow. Chip companies have turned to multicore designs in recent years as the performance of single-core processors has leveled off, the news service said. A single-core processor can be set up to process multiple instruction threads at the same time, but must ultimately run faster and faster to improve its performance, which generates heat. Multicore processors can execute instructions in parallel, which means multiple separate instruction threads can be processed at the same time. By moving to multiple-core designs, chip designers can extract more performance from their products while reducing power consumption and heat dissipation. Effectively a “supercomputer on a chip” incorporating advanced multi-processing technologies used in IBM’s sophisticated servers, Sony Group’s computer entertainment systems and Toshiba’s advanced semiconductor technology, Cell will become the broadband processor used for industrial applications to the new digital home, the companies said in a statement. Another advantage of Cell is to support multiple operating systems, such as conventional operating systems (including Linux), real-time operating systems for computer entertainment and consumer electronics applications as well as guest operating systems for specific applications, simultaneously, the companies said. Initial production of Cell microprocessors is expected to begin at IBM’s 300mm wafer fabrication facility in East Fishkill, N.Y., followed by Sony Group’s Nagasaki Fab, this year. IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba expect to promote Cell-based products including a broad range of industry-wide applications, from digital televisions to home servers to supercomputers. Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminta, said other industrial uses for the chip include flight simulation and fluid flow analysis in the auto industry. Technology Industry