Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Click for a larger image.

Creative, yes the folks that make webcams, headphones, speakers, etc. just announced the ZiiLABS. After years of development work the team is ready to introduce StemCell based computing with the first nano-computing chip, the ZiiLABS ZMS-05 SoC (System-On-Chip). The cell processor which had been developed by Sony and Toshiba was talked up like this back when it was launch. Though the PS3 graphics are great, not mujch had been done with the cell in recent year. Just this past week Toshiba announced a cell powered TV that will blow current TVs out of the water living room. At first glance (and not being a total hardware-head) StemCell computing seems to be the next step. With extreme processing power at low energy consumption and low costs, this may just be the beginning of the next generation of computing.

This StemCell approach has three major benefits:

• Flexibility - Utilizing a breakthrough technology comprising of programmable Processing Elements (PEs) which are basically Software Defined Silicon
• Scalability - 10Gigaflops to Petaflops (1015 floating point operation per second)
• Energy Efficiency - Huge processing power of the ZMS-05 SoC enables it to perform more in less time, equating to low power consumption

Unlimited Flexibility

Stem cells are the basic building blocks of life, possessing the unique ability to develop into the specialized cells and tissues required by organisms to function effectively. Inspired by this concept, the ZMS architecture uses an array of media-optimized Processing Elements (PE) as its stem cells that can instantly develop into any of the specialized acceleration functions required of today’s media rich devices and offering advantages in terms of flexibility, performance and features when compared to the fixed function silicon blocks traditionally used in SoC designs.

Incredible Scalability

The scalability of the ZMS architecture is highlighted in the first Teraflop Accelerator with the footprint of an A4-sized sheet of paper, consuming less power than a desktop PC. By utilizing the virtually unlimited chaining capability of the ZMS chips, a state-of-the- art ‘hypercomputer’ with many Petaflops of processing power can be realized, which can be 100 times smaller, 100 times greener and 100 times lower cost than conventional super computers.

High Energy Efficiency

Due to the compute density of each Processing Element, the ZMS-05 SoC is able to do an immense amount of media processing in far less time - and with far less energy - than taken by standard processors; which translates into longer battery life. Intelligent power control means the speed and power consumption of the processor can be matched to the task in hand and unused features can be turned off completely, put in deep stand-by and reactivated instantly after weeks of shut down, helping to lengthen battery life even further.