The PS3 Cell processor is a chip with 8 processors. The PPE which is similar to other processor(/cores) and more interesting 7 SPEs. 1 SPE is dedicated to the operating system, so the resources the OS takes from this SPE to do things in the background don't take resources from the other processors.
Some early PS3 games did not use the SPEs at all. Ideally nearly all code is run on the SPEs instead of on the PPE, due to being different this takes some effort. Adjusting code from the PPE for the SPEs is a gradual and time consuming process but results into huge processing gains and headroom. Any enhancement developers make to their game engine all their follow-up games will benefit.
The PS3 hardware is intended to last a decade, so this approach which would not make sense on a PC (where hardware specs change all of the time) does absolutely make sense in this case. It's worthwhile to release innovative new hardware like the Cell processor for a longlasting console, as developers have enough time to figure out ways to adapt and develop their game engines accordingly.
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