The IBM Cell processor is getting a lot of press -- it's the processor in the Playstation 3.  It's also the processor being used by IBM in the development of the Roadrunner, a High Performance Computing (HPC) system at Los Alamos National Lab, one of five efforts underway in the US to break the petaflop barrier by 2010.  The Cell processor was co-developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba.  So what is so special about it?  Finding out is your task for this homework assignment.

Using the background of the topics discussed in your textbook, look at the various modules of the Cell to develop an understanding of its features and to answer the question of "what's so special?"  Suggestions for the topics to be considered mirror those of the text:

• chip architecture
• instruction set(s)
• pipeline(s)
• dynamic scheduling 
• issue and commit of instructions
• (superscalar) functional units within processor(s)
• branch prediction and speculation
• memory hierarchy and features
• levels of cache
• associativity, block size, miss penalty
• TLB, virtual memory
• special features for graphics
• special features for HPC (high performance computing)
• the Cell within the Playstation 3
  

To document your inquiry and understanding, write at least a three page paper (max five pages). Your audience is other computer science majors (targeted to junior CS Majors). Your task is for them to gain an understanding of "what's so special about the Cell processor?"  Be sure to adequately provide the sources for diagrams, etc.   

Here are some links to get you going (but you can certainly locate more):

Cell Broadband Engine Architecture from 20,000 Feet

Introduction to the Cell Multiprocessor

The Sony Playstation Dissected