Why did Sony use the Cell processor in the PS3?

[rubido]

MikeB said:
@ thors1982

Cell will NEVER reach 100% "theoretical power" its not possible. And so people don't think we are dissing the PS3... Xbox will never reach 100% theoretical power either... although it will be closer because the number of cores is smaller.

This is the case with regard to the Xenon processor as well. IBM's testing indicates it's much easier to yield near full potential using the Cell processor. The Cell isn't simply a multi-core CPU, the SPEs operate very differently each having their own dedicated ultra-speed memory to work with (also the 3.2 Ghz XDR memory is much faster than the memory the Xenon has access to).

I can garantee you that those IBM tests mean nothing when applied to the ps3. There are specific applications in which you can get much more speedup. I can bet you that these specific applications were cherry picked for that test. This cherry picking does not happen in games. Also, the tests were run by IBM. Of course they are going to put the cell on the best scenario possible.