IBM’s Cell Chip

You could pretty much declare IBM’s Cell chip a success when the news broke that it would power Sony’s Playstation 3. The Playstation 3 may not be the out-and-out success that Sony hoped for but it’s still a device that sells in the millions. News emerged today that Toshiba will use the Cell chip in a new laptop that goes on sale in Japan in July. To be precise Toshiba will use the SpursEngine, a multimedia co-processor derived from the Cell chip.

The victory here for IBM is that the SpursEngine will do the graphics work - and you may have noticed that the Playstation graphics are rather good if not awesome. So the Toshiba laptops will run an Intel Core 2 Duo chip for Windows, but the differentiating feature will be the graphics. High definition video will be possible on these machines. If all you ever do is watch YouTube videos on your laptop, this is not going to make any difference, but if you want to upscale standard def video to high def then the SpursEngine is your friend.

Holographs

I’ve noted many times that the IT industry invests more in the user interface than everything else put together. If you’re thinking “well we don’t have much to show for that” I think you’re on the money. Nevertheless, the Indian company Infosys may also be on the money with the holographic technology it is making a noise about. It has developed mobile handsets that can project, capture and send 3D images or holographs as we like to call them. Infosys claims that such devices will hit the market in 2010.

I’m not gonna hold my breath on that, but the simple fact is that most of the problems I’m aware of in holography are now solved. A holograph is a 3D representation and you can build one by using an algorithm or two on several 2D representations (photos). A holograph takes lots of space, but you can transmit differences between images to save bandwidth, which is what Infosys does.

Last year researchers at USC produced a holographic display with a 360 degree field of view. Holographic displays with smaller fields of view have been available for a while. There are many compelling applications for it too, like showing you how to take machines apart and fix broken parts. 3D images beat 2D images hands down for gaming too. In fact gaming will probably be the application that brings it all to market.

Obama and the Web

Barack Obama would like to know if you have any ideas on how to improve the competitiveness of the US economy. One way would be to ensure that US companies rather than Indian ones were the first to introduce the next generation interface (after OS X).

I have to be impressed that he asked though. He posed the question through Linked-in.com and so far over 1700 people have sent their ideas. Obama is truly an Internet phenomenon. He squashed his primary competitors (Clinton, Edwards et al) in use of the Internet with:

  1. A better web site.
  2. A better financial donations capability
  3. Better use of Facebook and MySpace
  4. Better use of YouTube
  5. Better use of Twitter
  6. Better use fo Linked-in

You have to feel sorry for John McCain. It’s such an unfair contest in respect of the web. It’s never been proven that John McCain knows that the Internet actually exists. Go to Twitter and you’ll notice that Obama has over 40,000 followers. McCain is invisible. He’s not even there, he’s represented by a few supporters. If the US elections were simply about the use of the Internet, Obama would win by a landslide in all 50 states.

  Subscribe to HaveMacWillBlog in a reader