Sony Group, Toshiba and IBM Renew Cell Broadband Engine(TM) Center of Competence...

Sony Group, Toshiba and IBM Renew Cell Broadband Engine(TM) Center of Competence with Georgia Tech

Upcoming Workshop to Focus on Developing Commercial Applications
and Productivity Software for Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.)
Processor
ATLANTA--(Business Wire)--
The Georgia Tech College of Computing today announced the renewal
of the Sony Corporation/Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (Sony
Group)-Toshiba-IBM Center of Competence (STI Center), based on Georgia
Tech's exceptional work in multiple areas of research and evangelism
for the Cell Broadband Engine(TM) (Cell/B.E.) technology. Through
Georgia Tech's efforts, the STI Center has been responsible for
creating and disseminating software optimized for Cell/B.E. systems,
and for performing research on the design of Cell/B.E. systems,
algorithms and applications. In conjunction with this renewal of the
STI Center, Georgia Tech is announcing a series of new research
projects that are being undertaken at the center to develop
applications and productivity tools based on the Cell/B.E.
microprocessor.

Georgia Tech also announced today that it will host the Second
Annual Cell/B.E. Processor Workshop from July 10-11, 2008, focusing on
software, tools and applications for the Cell/B.E. processor,
including high performance computing applications and programmability
tools. The two-day workshop is sponsored by Sony Group, Toshiba and
IBM and will be held at the Klaus Advanced Computing Building on
Georgia Tech's campus. More information on the workshop may be found
at http:/sti.cc.gatech.edu/.

The STI Center of Competence was created at Georgia Tech to test
the boundaries and demonstrate the extreme performance of the
Cell/B.E. architecture. "Today, we are carrying out the vision we
always intended - to generate breakthrough innovations using Cell/B.E.
technologies working hand-in-hand with researchers at Sony Group,
Toshiba and IBM," said David A. Bader, professor and executive
director of High-Performance Computing in the Georgia Tech College of
Computing. "We are very encouraged that our initial research results
are showing the multi-faceted applicability of this technology."

One of the key research challenges that the collaborators will
address through continued applied research is the use of Cell/B.E.
technology to better monitor an aircraft's structural safety in
commercial and military airplanes. Researchers will develop Cell/B.E.
based data-processing software that will expeditiously and accurately
monitor structural components in flight by measuring and recording an
aircraft's vibrations through a distributed network of sensors.
Although a commercial signal processing application for airplanes is a
long term plan, researchers are working to develop a solid software
foundation in the labs.

"IBM has invested in a strategy that applies the use of technology
to solve grand challenges with our trusted university partners," said
Jai Menon, IBM Fellow, vice president, Technical Strategy and
University Relations. "In our collaboration with Georgia Tech, we are
working together to better predict airline mechanical failures to make
flying in airlines safer for passengers like you and me."

The other joint research projects in productivity enhancements
include:

-- A useful signal processing kernel needed for oil and gas
exploration and seismic monitoring;

-- Data compression, used for file compression or reducing the
size of messages sent between computers required in multiple
industries;

-- Financial services applications for consolidated debt
optimization, as well as European and American options
pricing;

-- Encryption libraries for securing communications for privacy;

-- High-speed multimedia codecs, such as MPEG2 and JPEG2000
encoders and decoders;

-- Bioinformatics, such as DNA sequence alignment and comparison;

-- Software productivity enhancement tools that involve a
cross-platform profiler, performance estimation and tuning
system with IDE type features.

-- Single-source automatic translator for generating PPU and SPU
codes from a monolithic C/C++ application.

"We anticipate a paradigm shift in computing and our collaboration
with the Georgia Tech College of Computing will create innovative
applications for Cell/B.E. processors," said Yasu Yokote, general
manager, CELL Application Development Center, Sony Corporation. "For a
year STI Center created at Georgia Tech, they created software
productivity enhancement tools, which are valuable for moving legacy
code bases to CELL/B.E. and will generate tremendous value to all
Cell-based products."

"Within a year of the opening of the Center of Competence at
Georgia Tech, researchers are already generating outstanding results
on Cell/B.E.," said Mitsuo Saito, Chief Fellow, Toshiba Corporation
Semiconductor Company. "The future will see growing demand for
multi-core processor applications, and we are delighted that the
Center is playing a key role in anticipating and responding to such
demand."

About the Georgia Tech College of Computing

The Georgia Tech College of Computing is a national leader in the
research and creation of real-world computing breakthroughs that drive
social and scientific progress. With its graduate program ranked 9th
nationally by U.S. News and World Report, the College's unconventional
approach to education is pioneering the new era of computing by
expanding the horizons of traditional computer science students
through interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on human centered
solutions. For more information about the College of Computing, its
academic divisions and research centers, please visit
www.cc.gatech.edu.

About the Cell Broadband Engine

The revolutionary Cell/B.E. processor is a breakthrough design
featuring a central processing core, based on IBM's industry leading
Power Architecture(TM) technology, and eight synergistic processors.
Cell/B.E. "supercharges" computation-intensive applications, offering
fast performance for computer entertainment and handhelds,
virtual-reality, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive
TV shows and other "image-hungry" computing environments. The
processor was created through a collaboration between Sony Group,
Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) and IBM.

All company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies. Cell Broadband
Engine is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Georgia Tech College of Computing
Stefany Wilson, 404-312-6620
stefany@cc.gatech.edu

Copyright Business Wire 2008