The code would I presume have to run under an emulator which would kind of defeat any advantage speed wise. Also from what I hear the cell processor is quite a beast to code for and get the best possible performance out of. This seems to be the reason there's not as many games for the PS3.

Over the years I've seen so many ideas come and go CPU design wise. They all sounded attractive and were going to be the next big thing but they all seem to stumble on the bit about actually writing code for them.

If you really want a number cruncher you can now get 16 cores running at 3GHz and Vegas will run on that. Just how much of that power it can actually use is another matter entirely but at least in part whatever holds in back would apply just as much with the cell cpu.

Now what might be interesting is using a blade server to run network rendering. We've found them going pretty cheap on eBay.

Bob.

whats better however is the option to run optional OS.. basically what you do is install an OS on a lapto HDD (such as linux... havent tried windows, but i doubt it will work) then mount the drive in the PS3.. boot up the PS3 and select your OS and whammo.. full blown linux running pretty much everythign linux can run.. only this time its using the PS3 gruntDoesn't and cannot work. The PS3 uses Alpha Code base, laptops that run windows are x86 Intel or AMD Cpus, different lanuage, doesn't work. The other OS system that can be run is "Yellow Dog Linux" and future developers, unless there are some newer Alpha coded software available now. If you do install the Alpha Coded Yellow Dog Linux most of the programs related to video editing won't work on it because they are coded for an Intel x86 processor, so you would have to download the source code & recompile the program to run. If you have never compiled programs before this isn't an easy task.
Many students at "MIT" are using the PS3 for development, programming & all, also developing hacks I guess.

If you install Linux on an x86 computer with a nVidia card you can program the xorg.conf file for dual view setup with 2 monitors or 1 monitor & HDTV/SDTV. Works nice & nVidia writes great Linux drivers. When I installed Linux on the PS3 trying to find the correct nVidia drivers compiled as alpha code were not available, maybe "Terrasoft" has written the drivers by now. So video performance for standard defintion was OK, HighDefintion was not OK at all.
The linux kernel compiled by terrasoft only used 4 cores if I remember, not all the available cores on the PS3's cpu either.

If you want to use & install the other OS go to this website for all the instructions, code, image file to burn to a CD:
Yellow Dog Linux for PS3

You should really do this on another harddisk though because the PS3 partitioning is hard coded. Either 10Gigs for the PS3 or 10Gigs for the other OS, the difference left over after the 10gigs goes to whatever system you select it to. Make sure to use the backup utility for the PS3 before doing anything. After you get stuck, and you will get stuck changing harddisks or partitions, to correct the bootup problem "Press the On Button continuous down" when booting up until the screen resets itself & forced hardware is initiated. This will reset the graphics display settings and boot parameters to default to recover using a different harddisk. So if you do install another harddisk into the PS3 hold the "On" button on continuously or the PS3 will fail to boot. It reports something like incompatible harddisk or similar wording.
Some people have returned their PS3's not knowing this.

I'm hoping they will come out with a "Live DVD" or "Live BD" that can run or boot a program from the DVD/BD, similar to playing a game except it's an OS or program.

Actually, the PS3 cell is based on the IBM powerPC6 cpu for the main cpu. The other sub-8 are unique cpus that execute loaded code in the memory cache of each cpu. Any OS that can run on PowerPC 6 will work on the cell, except the slave cpus require separate coding. The PS3 has a library of en/decoders that will execute in the slave units, just need SKs for IO parameters.