Linux gets support for the Cell Processor platform

Linux gets support for the Cell Processor platform

Linus Torvalds has released an updated Linux kernel earlier this week, which would support the much-hyped Cell processor platform. This updated kernel of the open source operating system also brings in support for Oracle software for clustered databases and improves how the open-source operating system runs on multiprocessor systems.

Torvalds made this announcement on the Linux kernel mailing list releasing the Linux kernel version 2.6.16. This kernel has been released on the kernel.org website and it often is taken as the standard for the next Linux distributions developed by the various companies including Red Hat, SuSE, and Mandriva.

The added support for the Cell platform would make it easier for their developers IBM, Sony, and Toshiba to market it to corporate entities around the world as they plan to release products using the Cell processors. Interestingly, Sony Playstation 3 gaming console would be using a variant of the same processor and it means that it would be capable of running the Linux operating system!

IBM on their part wants to promote it as a platform for high-performance computing tasks such as medical image processing.