On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:44:14 -0600, dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This announcement raises more questions than it answers; I >wonder if we'll look back at this in ten years time as the >beginning of a new future for the mainframe....:-) > >I'd like to learn how will these Cell processors will be >incorporated into the zSeries architecture and how will they >be exploited by the software. Will they appear like the >currently available specialty processors (ILF, ZIIP, ZAP, >etc.) do now? Will the zSeries o/s be able to automatically >offload processing to the Cell processors or will specific >programming action have to be taken? Can these Cell >processors be used to speed up numerically intensive >applications tht we might want to run on zSeries now? > >Does the online gaming system the Brazilian company is >developing now use z/VM and virtual machines or does it rely >on LPARs? > Right off hand I'd guess it would be more like the hardware cryptography facilities than like ZIIP/ ZAAP/IFL. But who knowns -- it may not look like anything they currently have.
