New IBM blade billed as a supercomputer for the average IT Joe

New Cell chip said to boost performance by 5 times compared to previous blade servers
IBM today unveiled a new blade server based on the Cell chip, which was originally designed to run a video game console.

The IBM BladeCenter QS22 runs the new PowerXCell 8i chip, a souped-up version of the Cell processor jointly developed by IBM, Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. to run large computations on the PlayStation 3 video game system. Instead of running operating systems, the Cell chip takes on massive calculations, making it well-suited for video games or supercomputing tasks.

The updated Cell chip has 16 times more memory and is five times faster than the original, IBM said.

"The new Cell chip is up to 20 times faster on some common financial calculations than Intel's quad-cores," said Dan Olds, an analyst atGabriel Consulting Group Inc.. "The real advantage is being able to run a lot of workloads a lot faster than you thought possible. It could potentially be a game-changer for some companies."

Olds added that the new system will let IT managers run projects in-house using much less hardware. "If you're currently using 20 Intel- or AMD-based systems, you could replace that with one of these blades," he added. "Think of the difference."

While IBM is using Cell blades in the new Roadrunner supercomputer that it's building for Los Alamos National Laboratory, this is the first time it will be selling them for something other than research applications.

The Cell-based blades are largely expected to give Roadrunner enough of a power boost to enable it to bypass the petaflop barrier when it undergoes testing later this month.

The QS22 blade is designed to work in supercomputers or in a large corporate data center, according to Olds. It can be used on its own or alongside other blades, like those based on AMD and Intel processors.

Compworld