Not everyone has the know-how to learn the ins and outs of the Cell processor and the powers it's got, so for those people hoping to make some new apps for the PS3, WITHOUT having to go through the drudgery of reading up on the Cell, then you're in luck.

Two companies are teaming up to make a development kit that specializes in making Cell-based applications. According to the agreement between RapidMind and Terra Soft, RapidMind will be providing an evaluation version of their RapidMind Development Platform v2.0 for distribution on Terra Soft's YDL.net Enhanced accounts.

The RapidMind Development Platform will enable users to make programs and applications for all Cell-based hardware, which not only includes Yellow Dog Linux on the PS3, but other products from big companies like IBM and Sony. In other words, what they're bringing out won't just be for making PS3 apps. Serious programmers working on things like the Blade Center graphics server or the Roadrunner supercomputer would presumably be able to use the devkit to make their own programs.

Time will tell if this little partnership will work out. We're hoping it will though, mostly because we're waiting for a budding developer to release a PS3 version of Ponies and Kittens. Hardcore baby, hardcore.

Not everyone actually listens to the makers about the tech involved in making a console so much as the end result. When Hideo Kojima references IBM's Cell Processor in a version of his Guns of the Patriots trailer, however, then you kinda want to shift focus a bit and keep your eyes peeled for news, if only because Kojima makes non-ninja stealth assassination cool.

So here's the next update on the Cell Processor, and this time, it has very little to do with the PS3 (though it may just be good PR for the darned thing).

In addition to using the Cell as one of the processing chips for the Roadrunner supercomputer, IBM has decided to find another use for their Cell by making it a component in a new model of their blade servers. Dubbed the BladeCenter QS20, it's being marketed as a high-end graphics server.

Currently, BladeCenter QS20 is being used in academic fields, some of which require such heavy-duty servers to take the weight of their projects. The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics in Germany, for example, will be using it to improve their in-house visual applications, while Britain's University of Manchester intend to use it for their computing needs as it eats up less space and power while upgrading their overall computing performance.

What do you think? Will this be good PR for Sony and the PS3 as well as the IBM, or is it bad news for Sony?