[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux and the pending new "Cell" Processor

[Fred Hensley]

I just finished reading the article link below announcing a new multicore
processor in joint development by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba.

http://www.comcast.net/News/TECHNOLOGY//XML/1700_High_Tech/d7a9612f-7d10-483
9-aff8-84180cf55901.html

What's interesting to me is not only the move towards pending multicore
offerings by Intel, AMD, and now these guys, but more importantly how this
consortium is describing future application and OS support. 

While testing for this pending product is going on down in Austin, the only
OS the development team openly admits to testing is Linux.  Not Microsoft,
not UNIX, not another embedded or real-time variant, but Linux.

Despite the earlier IBM/Motorola powerpc venture not working out, consider
how far Linux has come over the past three years since for the enterprise,
embedded appliances, and even the desktop.  The odds have never been better
for Linux to hop this newest hardware bandwagon and ride it to new
promininence.

If I were a Microsoft executive in Redmond, now might be an excellent
opportunity to quietly start exercising some stock options. 

-Fred-