Programming the Cell Processor: For Games, Graphics, and Computation

Epilogue

At some point in the history of music, single-instrument compositions gave way to full polyphonic arrangements. Can you imagine it? One day the audiences cheer at your flute solos, the next day they demand not only multiple flutes, but also drums and lyres! Many composers must have thrown down their quills and stormed away. But others, such as Bach andVivaldi, embraced the challenge and created works that continue to draw cheers centuries later.

Modern computing faces a similar challenge. Today’s developers are used to building single-processor applications; they write code for one device, one cache, one memory bank. But as many chip designers have found, the only way to improve processor performance without increasing power consumption ...