Toshiba aims to deliver laptops with Cell-based graphics this year

Toshiba has been touting its Cell-based SpursEngine graphics chip for some time now, but it looks like its finally starting to get a bit more specific about when we can expect to see it in actual products. According to Register Hardware, Toshiba will begin offering the chip in some of its multimedia-oriented notebooks sometime this year, with TVs and DVD players set to get it by the fall of 2009. The chip itself, for those not up to speed, uses its Cell-based technology (specifically, four of the Cell's Synergistic Processing Element cores) to handle some heavy-duty graphics processing, including upscaling standard definition content to high-def levels, something Toshiba has apparently taken to calling "super-resolution." Now word on what sort of premium (if any) we can expect to pay for such wonders, but Toshiba is apparently betting pretty heavily on the technology as part of its post HD DVD strategy.

[gabe @ May 9th 2008 3:46PM]

im not impressed with PS3 graphics - and this is an underpowered iteration

well some sony fanboys will surely lube up for this one

[True_Darknight @ May 9th 2008 3:56PM]

@gabe

WTF does this have to do with PS3 graphics? your such a chach... let the fanboyism go. This has to do with compressing or upscaling an SD signal to HD.. which uses the CELL processor...

Lameass

[martin @ May 9th 2008 3:59PM]

ps3 doesnt use cell for graphics, it uses the rsx

[ethana2 @ May 9th 2008 4:23PM]

With Ubuntu on the PS3, we do have to use the CBE for graphics, as we don't have access to the RSX.

I understand the rasterization performance is decent, but the opengl implementation isn't complete yet. It seems to be the gallium team's crown jewel though, so I figure it's a matter of time.

[Dale @ May 9th 2008 5:32PM]

The PS3 uses NVidia tech for graphical output.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSX_%27Reality_Synthesizer%27

[tekdroid @ May 9th 2008 3:48PM]

Sounds pretty darn unique, which is what the laptop world needs more of. Well done Tosh. Great for videophiles if the product can match the hype.

Of course there'll be a big premium to pay but them's the breaks.

[IT-Accountant @ May 9th 2008 3:59PM]

does anyone know what kind of performance these new graphics engines and hardware will offer? (I presume these chips will offer DirectX or OpenGL- compatible 3d hardware acceleration as well as 2d resolution scaling).

Anyone? Any idea how they'd perform next to, say, an 8600mGT or 8800mGTX?

[ethana2 @ May 9th 2008 4:22PM]

For ray tracing, probably a bit better.

[gabe @ May 9th 2008 4:13PM]

no Sony fanboy were harmed during the making of this thread :)

[Zoesch @ May 9th 2008 9:12PM]

You seem to have been harmed in the making of you.

[Onetruebill @ May 9th 2008 11:09PM]

After reading some of Gabe's posts, I can see why his "Hello Kitty"
is crying...

[atomicknuckles @ May 31st 2008 4:59PM]

you do realize that his icon isnt hello kitty right?

[ethana2 @ May 9th 2008 4:21PM]

HECK YES.
Just give me three CBE's in a laptop. I don't need no stinking x86 processor.

[aaron @ May 9th 2008 4:32PM]

Qosmio weight=PS3 weight

Trust me, I had one not too long ago.

[slarity @ May 9th 2008 4:44PM]

I vote gabe is horribly educated!

Awaiting benchmarks to see how this will compare to stand to mobile ati/nvidia hardware...

[Ayle @ May 9th 2008 6:12PM]

It acts as a coprocessor not a graphic card.

[R K @ May 9th 2008 5:02PM]

This sounds like hype to me.
PCs and laptops already output at hidef (1080p with a resolution of 1920x1200), and software DVD players already upscale, so what's the point of the CELL processor again?

I guess you can always offload some of the decoding from the CPU, but modern GPUs from NVIDIA and ATI already do that too.

[cduran01 @ May 9th 2008 7:01PM]

On a laptop, the 4 SPE cell is both cheaper and lower power than a high end GPU.

[Shevket @ May 10th 2008 3:07AM]

Toshiba is idiot. They should have invested on the current DVD technology by enhancing an MPEG4 (H.264) variant and using 9GB capacity for high-def recording. They started an unnecessary pissing contest with Sony and lost.

Suddenly they "discovered" that upscaling MPEG2 DVDs are good enough for most people and people don't need 20+ GB of storage. Very desperate move, in my opinion.

[solidus636 @ May 12th 2008 3:44AM]

Honestly, how would this perform on games?....say...Crysis?