The cell of a new machine

ANALOGIES are often drawn between the fields of computer science and biology. The information-processing abilities of DNA are a form of natural molecular computing, and computer viruses leap from machine to machine in ways reminiscent of their disease-causing namesakes. At the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, a trio of mighty information-technology firms—Sony, Toshiba and IBM—pushed the analogy a little further. They unveiled a much anticipated new computer chip, four years in the making, the very name of which is a biological metaphor: the Cell.

As its name suggests, the Cell chip is designed to be used in large numbers to do things that today's computers, most of which are primitive machines akin to unicellular life-forms, cannot. Each Cell has as its “nucleus” a microprocessor based on IBM's POWER architecture. This is the family of chips found inside Apple's Power Mac G5 computers and IBM's powerful business machines. The Cell's “cytoplasm” consists of eight “synergistic processing elements”. These are independent processors that have a deliberately minimalist design in order, paradoxically, to maximise their performance.