[sf-lug] Posting and Announcement

jim stockford jim at well.com
Thu Jun 15 12:02:04 PDT 2006 

    thank you for the info. good stuff, consider yourself
promoted.
    I'm shopping the lenovo website for a thinkpad,
but i want to put RHEL 4 on it and have the wifi
and CD/DVD burner work. I cannot find convincing
data to that effect.
    Got suggestions or encouragement? If I buy it, do
you know of anyone who'd help me get things to
work the way I want (I'm willing to pay money)?
hopefully,
jim


On Jun 15, 2006, at 9:57 AM, Adrien Lamothe wrote:

> The "BE" stands for "Broadband Engine", it is just a name, meant to 
> indicate the blazing speed at which the processor operates. The Cell 
> Processor (or Cell Broadband Engine, whichever you prefer) promises to 
> completely revolutionize computing. It is basically an extended Power5 
> processor, but with higher memory bus bandwidth and nine execution 
> cores:  a central "Power Processor Element" and eight "Synergistic 
> Processor Elements". Linux is being ported to it, and Sun has just 
> agreed to port Solaris to it. The CBE is the processor for Sony's new 
> PlayStation3. According to IBM, the CBE will be used across the full 
> spectrum of computing devices, from mainframes down to cell phones.
>
> My only concerns about the CBE are power consumption and heat 
> generation/dissipation and the associated thermal management 
> requirements. That is what most likely may cause problems.
>
> I too believe Linux has reached a "tipping point" (a currently trendy 
> phrase), and that the IBM CBE  will play an important role in Linux 
> adoption. O'Reilly published an article of mine asserting this, you 
> can read it at:  
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/03/23/apple_vs_everyone.html
>
> One of my predictions in the article recently came true:  Lenovo is 
> now offering ThinkPads at unbelievably low prices (thanks to the 
> incredibly efficient cost of production in China). You can get a 
> Celeron M ThinkPad for $499, a Pentium M ThinkPad for $679 and a Core 
> Duo Thinkpad for $999 (the latter two with Windows XP Professional). 
> So now Lenovo can compete with Dell on a price basis. That was the 
> plan.
>
> Developing software that takes advantage of multi-core processors is a 
> bit more challenging, you have to write multi-threaded software. I 
> recently posted an article speaking about this, you can read it at 
> http://www.adriensweb.com/text/pthreads_comeback.html
>
> I would like to write about some details of the CBE, but the licensing 
> terms of the CBE software development kit and CBE simulator (which 
> runs on Fedora Core 4)  prevent anyone from writing about them. In 
> fact, after reading the licensing terms I decided not to download 
> those two packages (IBM asks you to agree with the licensing terms 
> before you download the packages.)
>
> If all of this seems like shameless self-promotion, it is.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Adrien
>
>
> jim stockford <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
>  Momtaheni's Posting and Announcement seems to
> announce activities pertaining to linux running on IBM's
> new cell CPU. I'd like to know what's this BE business
> (as in "cell BE")?
>  This strikes me as potentially important as IBM has
> a big and high quality RnD department and the cell
> CPU is touted as a worthy alternative to Intel's (and
> others') offerings.
>  If IBM is pushing the cell CPU, what machines will
> appear? "Back room" machines for sure, possibly new
> user (desktop, gaming...) machines, too, maybe new
> data and service appliances.
>  The computer user community at large seems to be
> at some kind of breaking point: open source is gaining
> popularity, linux is increasing market share with a new
> push for desktop use, there are cracks in the paradigms
> for embedded systems (calls for more CPUs rather
> than more complex software, for one example).
>  There's a new spate of product offerings that are
> services for users: google's calendar/email/im/
> spreadsheet..., zimbra's on-line office productivity
> services (word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, data
> management--basically an office anywhere--for less
> than $30 per month), Foldera's new organization/
> collaboration online service (seems no charge for now).
> And if the One Laptop One Child initiative really takes
> off, there will be a huge infusion of new linux users
> using mesh networking on the internet: what new
> ideas will emerge from them?
>  All of the above threatens Microsoft's hold on the
> market: significantly, its paradigms for use are
> challenged.
>  For sure there's a sea change coming, and news of
> Linux on the cell CPU may portend something.
>
> On Jun 13, 2006, at 12:10 PM, Ida A Momtaheni wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I would like to post the information below about the PA Technical
>  > Briefing below to your website please.
> >
> > Cell BE programming and extensions to Linux
> >
> > Link to Website:
>  > http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/techbriefings/details/
>  > 
> powerarch.html?S_TACT=106AH59W&S_CMP=LPTCHBRF&ca=dgr-lnxUG016Cell-BE-
>  > Briefing
> >
> > Join us while we explore the details of Cell Broadband Engine (Cell
>  > BE) programming. This Tech briefing provides a comprehensive 
> technical
>  > overview of the Cell BE architecture, programming models, and 
> software
>  > development environment. You will learn all about Cell BE standards
>  > like the application binary interface specifications, SPE C/C++
>  > language extensions, SPE assembly language specification, 
> system-level
>  > simulator, Cell BE simulator debugging environment, and Cell BE
>  > extensions to Linux.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Ida Momtaheni
> > developerWorks
> >
> > IBM Corporation
> > 425 Market St.
> > San Francisco, CA 94105
> > iamomtah at us.ibm.com
> > _______________________________________________
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