7. The SPE Runtime Management Library (libspe)
The PPU’s most important role is managing the Synergistic Processor Elements (SPEs). In many applications, this is the PPU’s only role. This management process entails loading executable code into an SPE, initializing its data, starting execution, and monitoring events as the execution proceeds.
The SPE Runtime Management Library (libspe) provides the functions that make this management possible. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most important library in the SDK. You can write Cell applications without knowing about vectors or direct memory access, but if you don’t know libspe, your applications won’t be able to access the entire Cell processor.
It may seem premature to discuss SPE management ...
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