Powerful video-game chip to run IBM computer servers

The microprocessor that will power Sony's next-generation video-game console will also run computer servers that IBM, the chip's lead designer, is pitching to the defense, medical and entertainment industries.

The "Cell" chip will make its IBM debut in a new line of "blade" servers, which are relatively thin chunks of circuitry designed to perform specialized computing tasks.

IBM envisions Cell-based blades seeing action in markets requiring sterling graphics and intensive computing, possibly finding homes, for example, in military vehicles.

"It's not going to be a general-purpose computer," said Tim Dougherty, IBM's director of blade-center strategy. "But for certain things, it is incredible, and it will make orders of magnitude difference."

At a demonstration Wednesday in New York, IBM showed off Cell's processing power with a geology application that would have been right at home in a video game. A computer rendering of Mount Rainier, created using satellite photos and geological maps, allowed an operator to make a simulated flight over and next to the mountain.

Cell is scheduled to run Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game system, which is expected before the end of the year, and high-definition TVs from Sony and Toshiba, the companies that co-designed Cell.

Cell is touted as a game-changing "supercomputer on a chip" because of its unusual design, which includes an IBM Power processor helped by eight additional processors working together. (Versions of IBM's Power processor are the brains inside other IBM computers and in PlayStation's main rivals, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Revolution console, also due this year.)

While Cell's performance is highly regarded, skeptics say it remains to be seen whether the chip will see enough broader uses to truly be revolutionary.

One knock against Cell could be that it produces a high amount of heat, which could keep it out of mobile devices.

Blade servers can be particularly sensitive to heat because they pack so much circuitry into a small space. However, Dougherty said the new servers are designed to get around the heat problem.

Dave Turek, IBM's vice president of "deep computing," noted that while Cell's current setup stems from the intense demands of video games, the chip is designed to be modified for different industries' applications. In other words, Turek said, future versions can be made cooler.

Associated Press business reporter Betsy Schiffman in New York contributed to this report.