It is impossible to compare Cell to normal CPUs in any reliable way: they are way too different.
More closer benchmark would be CPU+DSP v. Cell - though again no such benchmarks exist.
But then again (even if there would be such benchmarks) it all would boil down to peripherals: DSPs (and Cell I think too) work internally magnitudes faster compared to e.g. RAM or PCI bus.
And also DSPs are real-time devices - you can calculate how long any particular operation would take. They are built into systems after calculating precisely what performance is needed. So they are kind of very specialized.
Cell is aimed to be more universal - but retaining all good features of DSPs. Though it doesn't look like it making any big inroads. DSP programming was always tricky...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sean @ Mar 13th 2007 12:23PM
Does anyone know of any benchmarks available comparing the cell processor to other current processors? Might be interesting...
Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Mar 13th 2007 1:03PM
It is impossible to compare Cell to normal CPUs in any reliable way: they are way too different.
More closer benchmark would be CPU+DSP v. Cell - though again no such benchmarks exist.
But then again (even if there would be such benchmarks) it all would boil down to peripherals: DSPs (and Cell I think too) work internally magnitudes faster compared to e.g. RAM or PCI bus.
And also DSPs are real-time devices - you can calculate how long any particular operation would take. They are built into systems after calculating precisely what performance is needed. So they are kind of very specialized.
Cell is aimed to be more universal - but retaining all good features of DSPs. Though it doesn't look like it making any big inroads. DSP programming was always tricky...