Ok, programming the cell processor was never difficult, it was just unfamiliar.

And you work for what developer? What's your experience? Don't believe what Sony first party/second party/PR says, they will praise the Cell anyways. Listen to what third partys have said since the start of the generation, they are much more uninterested in praising an architecture over another one.

Heterogeneous architectures are orders of magnitude harder to work with than Homogeneous ones. That's why, having OpenCL or DirectCompute, we're still waiting for that killer app in home pcs where the graphics card makes a go-to-buy-it difference.

Desktop users don't need the extra computing power that a GPU could offer. Scientists and engineers do. Nowadays however, many video games use real-time physics engines, like Nvidia PhysX which runs on CPU/GPU hybrid environments. Nobody complains about the PhysX engine, though it uses a heterogeneous architecture, and it's the most used physics engine out there. Nobody should complain about the Cell, it's just a powerpc cpu with added functionalities. Almost none write his game engine from the ground up: if someone wants to take advantege of the "exotic" capabilities of the Cell, he can just use the right middleware.

The same physics engine that no one even tries to program new effects and nVidia provides them all? The one developers are using because nVidia provides "marketing help" to promote their games in exchange of the TWIMTBP logo and providing nVidia a way to promote their graphics cards? Please tell me one developer who have made custom effects in physics. No one complains because no one develops custom effects. Ah, the most used physics engine is still havoc, not PhysX. The developers of Just Cause 2 said that they didn't touch the PhysX code, nVidia gave them.

Cell isn't a PPC cpu with added functionalities, it's a new, very different type of processor, which changes completely the way you should work. The problem is that middlewares aren't going to extract most of the cell power, because to do so, you need to develop an engine tailored to the cell strengths, and so far, only first/second parties have done so due to lack of return of investment. Do you Sony fans want another generation of bad ports?

I think that the most popular engine is PhysX ( http://physxinfo.com/articles/?page_id=154 ). However that's the point: Havok is optimized for the Cell, PhysX is optimized for the Cell, the Bullet physics engine is optimized for the Cell, Sony provides a lot of libraries for developers (optimized for the cell) and today even the crappiest of the ported games is quite good. Three or four years ago there weren't much optimized libraries for the Cell, that's the difference.

no the CELL is the best thing that has happened in gaming, just look at all the mindblowing games we have thanks to the CELL

Hopefully in future they will have a easier SDK available for all to use at a lower cost for example having the uncharted engine at peoples fingertips will help more companies to understand the beast that the ps3 really is, having an engine for the CELL is all we need and take CELL to the next level with ps4

PS4 will be on a 6 month plan confirmed!!!

PS4 will be the Biggest console to come, it will sell 200 million units simply since Blu Ray will be norm, 3D will be Huge by then with 100 million plus 3D tvs . And built in Play TV, Media Hub it would be the ultimate buy. 

Yeah, easily.

More info on the future of the Cell from IBM below..

"Development around the original Cell processor hasn't stalled and IBM will continue to develop chips and supply hardware for future gaming consoles, a company executive said.

IBM is working with gaming machine vendors including Nintendo and Sony, said Jai Menon, CTO of IBM's Systems and Technology Group, during an interview Thursday. "We want to stay in the business, we intend to stay in the business," he said.

The Cell processor, which was developed by IBM in conjunction with Sony and Toshiba, made its first appearance in Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console in 2005. The hybrid chip includes processor cores based on IBM's Power architecture. However, there have been questions surrounding Cell's future and its implementation in gaming consoles. Consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii also use IBM processors, though not the Cell chip.

IBM confirmed in a statement Friday that it continues to manufacture the Cell processor for use by Sony in its PlayStation 3. IBM also will continue to invest in Cell as part of its hybrid and multicore chip strategy, Menon said.

"I think you'll see [Cell] integrated into our future Power road map. That's the way to think about it as opposed to a separate line -- it'll just get integrated into the next line of things that we do," Menon said. "But certainly, we're working with all of the game folks to provide our capabilities into those next-generation machines."

Menon did not elaborate on specific chip and hardware developments for gaming systems, but said its Power processors have capabilities that are similar to those of the Cell chips.

"The kinds of things you used to be able to do with the Cell you can do in ... [the] Power line," Menon said.

There are also giant servers that will provide gaming capabilities through the cloud for which the company will also provide hardware, Menon said.

"Some of this consumer stuff is also a cloud play. There are giant servers out there that provide some of the gaming capability. Some of that will come through cloud-based offerings as well," Menon said.

The company earlier this year released the Power7 processor, and is working on the next-generation Power8 processor. IBM is putting a lot of resources into developing Power8, and the company is in line to release the new chip in the same time frame as earlier processors, Menon said.

The company has a history of releasing chips every three years, which points to a Power8 chip release for 2013.

The PlayStation 3 combines Power processor cores with specialized hardware to deliver advanced gaming capabilities. IBM is trying to increase its focus on developing multiple processing components in systems to intense graphics requirements and specific application needs.

"There are many things we are doing that will impact the consumer," Menon said." - source