Perl, Cell BE, PlayStation 3

sg has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

It is possible to write C-code for IBM's Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) (a multi-core processor) running linux and using the Cell BE SDK (C libraries) to take advantage of the multiple cores ("SPE"s).

Question: how would one go about enabling the use of the SPEs (via the Cell BE SDK) from perl on the linux?

Comment on Perl, Cell BE, PlayStation 3

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Re: Perl, Cell BE, PlayStation 3 by erroneousBollock (Curate) on Sep 20, 2007 at 07:23 UTC
There's nothing magical you can do to have perl take advantage of the Cell's SPEs. Normally the SPEs take short compiled programs from the supervisor and usually run those programs a vast number of times over a stream of data. To use them from perl5, the perl compiler would need to be re-written (not just re-compiled) to take advantage of the Cell's facilities. Unlike the current crop of "multi-core" processors, the Cell's SPEs are more like special purpose co-processors... where that purpose is modifiable at run-time. Once parrot (and it's JIT) has matured enough, some interested folks may be able to optimise a number of operations for the Cell. perl6 would indirectly benefit from these optimisations. -David	[reply]

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Re: Perl, Cell BE, PlayStation 3
by erroneousBollock (Curate) on Sep 20, 2007 at 07:23 UTC

Normally the SPEs take short compiled programs from the supervisor and usually run those programs a vast number of times over a stream of data.

To use them from perl5, the perl compiler would need to be re-written (not just re-compiled) to take advantage of the Cell's facilities.

Unlike the current crop of "multi-core" processors, the Cell's SPEs are more like special purpose co-processors... where that purpose is modifiable at run-time.

Once parrot (and it's JIT) has matured enough, some interested folks may be able to optimise a number of operations for the Cell. perl6 would indirectly benefit from these optimisations.

-David

[reply]