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MEDIA CENTER PC NEWSFebruary 8th 2005 Will Cell Kill The Media Center PC?
Consumer electronics manufacturers have been feeling the pinch (well, more of a nuzzle) as PC manufacturers start to churn out Wintel-based media center PCs. Cell is the first step in the fightback. A Cell equiped games console could perform its key function of playing games, but would also be able to run multimedia applications exceptionally fast. The Sony PS3, which is rumoured to be the first device to use Cell, is likely to be an all-round entertainment device - a gaming machine, a DVD recorder, a PVR, a wireless media hub. Combine that with the mobility of the Sony PSP and you have a potent combination that will be priced in such as way as to not break the bank. "For gaming and (encoding and decoding music and movie files), we think this is very important for digital homes," said Masakazu Suzuoki, Sony's vice president of microprocessor development. A media center PC is unlikely to able to compete on price with such devices, and with the limitations of x86, will not be able to compete on multimedia performance in the long run. One solution would be to use Cell in traditional PCs. Tom Starnes, an analyst with technology research company Gartner Inc. seems unenthusiastic about this. "[Cell] won't perform (traditional) PC-type functions," he is quoted as saying on the Cox News Service. He reiterated the problem facing the PC manufacturers. "It could definitely be a challenge to the media center PCs.'' So, unless things change, you are unlilkely to see Cell inside your PC. The future may depend over what the battles are fought. If multimedia domination is the aim then the consumer electronics manufacturers may have the edge with Cell. If we still want all-round performance, combining our email, our office functionality AND our home entertainment into one machine, then the media center PC and Wintel may still come out on top. |
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