bb.linuxsampler.org

Looking at that code example, it seems to be easier to utilize the vector part of the cell processor than I thought it would. Probably when we finish real SMP support in LS this year, adding support for the cell processor's vector part might be not much work. But who nows...... advertising examples often look easier than in practice ....

Do anyone know if there is some other Cell-based hardware available other than PS3? Like a motherboard to build your own number crunching solution?

AFAIK IBM sells boards based on the cell processor (to accelerate programs in servers and workstations) but
I bet they are damn expensive ... a few thousand $ vs a few hundred for the PS3.

So for the experimenter the PS3 is always the best solution, available everywhere and at a low price thanks to
the unit being mass produced.

Yes, I guessed that's was the situation. Consoles is also usually sold at loss (the manufacturer makes all the money on licensing SDK and the rights to release titles for the platform), so that's also a factor.

sbenno wrote:Yes Anders you are right,
once the LS modular engine will be up and running one could in theory target the PS3 coprocessors, far from trivial but doable.
As a synth the PS3 is certainly great. If we keep the code generator flexible enough it should be possible to target the PS3 too.
But this is for now future music, let's build the foundation first

Let me know if you need any ps3 testing.

Beside the PS3, there are currently two other products which come with cell processor(s). One is of course servers by IBM and the other one is PCI-X card wich can be used in normal PCs as well. BUT, both are damn expensive. IIRC you won't get any of those two products for lower than 6k USD. Having said that, the PS3 is thus a real snip, but with the already mentioned hardware constraints.