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Crave TV: Toshiba Spurs Engine puts PS3 Cell chip in a laptop
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Ever wondered what would happen if you put the PlayStation 3's Cell processor into a laptop? Us too, and now we know the answer: you get the Toshiba Spurs Engine, a system that turns a normal laptop into a motion-sensing, video indexing, face morphing, standard-def to hi-def converting super machine.
The system was demonstrated in modified Qosmio G45 laptops, each of which uses a standard Intel Core 2 Duo CPU in addition to a Cell chip with four 1.5GHz synergistic processing elements (SPEs). For reference, the PS3 has eight SPEs running at 3GHz, making it approximately 75 per cent quicker. Like any sensible human beings, we wondered how much all this would cost, but Toshiba assures us that if the system actually does come to market, it won't be too expensive. Yeah, and pigs can parallel park.
Toshiba had four demos running, the first of which transformed standard-definition video into 1080p. This takes any grubby-looking 640x480-pixel video -- of the sort you might record with a mobile phone or digital camera -- applies some hardcore image processing, and spits it out a few hours later as full 1080p. The effect was extremely impressive, and proves that you can, to some extent, polish a turd. Toshiba says it's possible to do this using an ordinary Intel Core processor, but the Spurs system speeds things up considerably -- what would take 24 hours with an ordinary laptop can be done in just three hours with the aid of Spurs. Stop sniggering, Arsenal fans.
The second demo was equally impressive, if a tad pointless. It allowed us to control a Qosmio G45 laptop using hand gestures -- like in Minority Report. The on-board webcam monitored our hand movements and the Spurs system translated these as instructions for the PC. We could pause and resume movie playback simply by holding our palm in the air, or control a cursor by waving a fist at the screen. Selecting options can be achieved by giving a thumbs-up. It's not as easy as, say, using a remote control, but it is very cool indeed.
Demo 3 might interest anyone with a shed-load of video to sort through. It scans all your movie files, recognises faces and creates thumbnails of those faces. You can then click the thumbnails to watch scenes with those faces in, or compile them in a separate playlist. This might be useful for creating a 'best of' reel of your favourite actor, but we didn't bother playing it for too long -- we got distracted by the next demo.
The final Spurs demo was the most fun of them all. Again, it uses the laptop's webcam -- this time to take a picture of your face. This it turns into a pseudo-3D representation of your mug, which you can modify in some interesting ways. We tested it by applying some pink hair, a facial tattoo and some make-up, which did a great deal to improve our four-days-in-Vegas appearance. We don't envisage it being used by many people, but it could be handy for next-gen instant messaging clients or in hair salons.
As with all things cool, Spurs is not yet available to consumers, and may never actually come to market. But it's fun to dream. Make sure you watch the video to see it in action. We think you'll be mightily impressed. -Rory Reid
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AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 11:46am
I think it is amazing! I knew Cell was superb, but, well, it was running vista on it!?
Hope this features and more would be available for soil people..
Upscaling video to HD will take only an hour instead of 24... wow!
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 3:46pm
"Stop sniggering, Arsenal fans." WTF???
You mean "Stop snickering"?
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 4:27pm
like ur joke thing "yeah and a pig can parralell park" but toshiba helps make xbox y use rivals system and give it money
CartmanFri 11 January, 2008 4:28pm
Toshiba using a SONY Playstaton 3 chip playing a HD-DVD - am I the only one that sees irony here?
David
Mary LojkineFri 11 January, 2008 4:44pm
There's nothing like using technology to turn your hair pink. As opposed to, say, hair dye.
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:05pm
The Cell chip was developed by sony and toshiba...so there isn't very much irony at all.
aliquisFri 11 January, 2008 5:07pm
Learn to count.
"in addition to a Cell chip with four 1.5GHz synergistic processing elements (SPEs). For reference, the PS3 has eight SPEs running at 3GHz, making it approximately 75 per cent quicker."
No it doesn't, it make the SPE power of the Toshiba laptop 25 percent as fast as the PS3, and the PS3s SPE power four times more.
"we wondered how much all this would cost, but Toshiba assures us that if the system actually does come to market, it won't be too expensive. Yeah, and pigs can parallel park."
Considering the PS3 contain four times the SPE power, the PPC core, blu-ray, the gfx and lots at other stuff and doesn't cost a fortune why would this be so expensive?
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:13pm
ntr.v. snig·gered, snig·ger·ing, snig·gers
To snicker.
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:22pm
The Cell processor wasn't developed exclusively for the PS3, it was jointly developed by IBM (powerpc core), Sony, and Toshiba (this group is STI), so not that ironic... Since it is built on a powerpc core, it is much more an IBM chip than a Sony chip.
IBM mainly puts Cell in blades and servers, and Toshiba had it in HDTV's. So this would be the first time in a consumer laptop, if this laptop ever makes it to market?
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:33pm
"For reference, the PS3 has eight SPEs running at 3GHz, making it approximately 75 per cent quicker."
Actually the PS3 has 7 SPE's. They disable one so that they could use as many of the early production Cells as possible. Eg, ones that have some flaws. The Cell proper, if you will, does have 8 SPEs though.
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:38pm
hmm, what OS does the laptop run?
as far as i know, only linux supports the cell chip (and maybe IBM's aix).
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 5:46pm
ok, sorry i didn't see the video before. it seems like it has windows...
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 6:26pm
well, the laptop does have an intel core 2 processor in it as well... that's probably why windows works on the laptop.
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 6:56pm
"We don't envisage it being used by many people, but it could be handy for next-gen instant messaging clients or in hair salons."
no WOW or second life user reaction about that? I'm quite surprised, though maybe they do not want their faces to appear on their avatars :)
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 7:35pm
aliquis -- that's exactly what i meant. the PS3's Cell processor is 75% quicker. And are you trying to tell me the PS3 doesn't cost a fortune? I beg to differ. Either way -- an ordinary Qosmio laptop costs well over a grand. When you start adding a Cell chip to it, i'm guessing it'll cost a fair bit more. Sony makes a loss on every PS3 in the hope they'l recoup the money on sales of games, but I doubt Toshiba would make Spurs-enabled laptops loss-leaders.
AnonymousFri 11 January, 2008 11:19pm
I think you misspelled "parallel pork".
AnonymousSat 12 January, 2008 3:21am
"aliquis -- that's exactly what i meant. the PS3's Cell processor is 75% quicker."
Um. I don't know how to say it without hurting your feelings, so I will take the long route.
We're not talking A/100 + B/100 = 100/100 . We're talking A/100 * B/100 = 100/100.
Twice the cores times twice the frequency makes a fourfold increase. That is 400% = 400/100 = 4 = 2*2 .
Funny exercise. My car maxes out at 100 MPH. Yours does at 175 MPH (nice car, by the way!). How much faster is your car compared to mine? As a percentage, please. You won't need logarithms, I promise.
AnonymousSat 12 January, 2008 3:39am
I'd buy one but I'd rather see an add-on card for a regular PC to give it one or more Cell processors to play with. Or maybe glue the Cell to a standard graphics card. That could be pretty cool I think.
AnonymousSat 12 January, 2008 6:04pm
aliquis: You fogot to carry the one. When you do that, X=you are a tosser.
AnonymousSun 13 January, 2008 12:59am
aliquis is a registered user. I, on the other hand, am not. I assume that "X=you are a tosser" is directed to me, based on my post about the "75% quicker" fallacy. So, (other anonymous user), when using childish insults, try not addressing them to the wrong person. I understand that my post *could* be misunderstood as coming from aliquis, but since it was from some anonymous user, it "shouldn't*. Cheers, and a happy comeback.
AnonymousSun 13 January, 2008 2:21pm
no if you looked you may see that i made a similar state ment right before you david
AnonymousMon 14 January, 2008 12:20pm
Apart from the expense, the PS3 is being sold at a loss. Which is why the games cost twice as much as the same games on the PC.
AnonymousTue 15 January, 2008 8:07pm
You mean like the <b>EYETOY?</b>
AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 3:51am
Toshiba Bought the cell broadband processer "I THINK" from SONY a while back. Im pretty sure but I could Be Wrong.
amyganThu 21 February, 2008 9:23am
Toshiba and Sony are both good!
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www.batterylink.us
AnonymousTue 12 August, 2008 6:07pm
wow everyone on here commenting is so stupid.. Toshiba and Sony both helped pay for the development of the Cell processor. So of course Toshiba is going to use it in development. It's not "Sony's" processor.
-skyler
DavidRGilsonFri 11 January, 2008 2:40am
Regarding the hand-gestures: an additional feature I'd like to see is user-defined hand gestures for applications.
Do you think this hand tracking technology could replace technology like the WiiMote? I.e. have Wii style gaming without having to hold a controller at all.