"The Cell chip is interesting for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it marries a 64-bit PowerPC core with eight vector math units that have a tremendous amount of processing power, which can be used to handle media processing or number crunching. Why someone isn't trying to build a Cell-based scientific workstation out of this chip is a wonder."
Yes, I wonder too:
Why Apple leapt over to the Intel architecture it has been deriding for 20 years. Why Microsoft is experimenting with offloading vector math processes to the video processors because they are an order of magnitude faster than than what we refer to as the CPU (for historical reasons apparently).
One way or another I have a feeling I'll be using one of these some day, no thanks to Microsoft, Apple or Intel (I hate having to list Apple as a co-conspirator) who continue to vend second-rate lock-in solutions. In the mean time, if I have to use second-rate, I'll do it second hand (I've never had one of these fail) and throw them in the dumpster when they roll off the usability curve (which is a lot longer in Linux-time than the commercial alternatives)
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