The whole world went gaga over the PS3’s Cell processor at the advent of the 7th generation of consoles. That hype slowly subsided as the PS3 failed to set the cash registers ringing. However, an imminent deluge of Cell-based products - Toshiba's latest Qosmio notebooks bear a Cell-derived chip - has turned the spotlight back on to the Cell Broadband Engine.

Sony is showcasing its ZEGO BCU-100 system, a dedicated high resolution video rendering system, at the ongoing SIGGRAPH 2008 event in Las Vegas. The BCU-100 multi-core processing platform leverages the immense power of the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor and RSX processor. The product can easily fit in a 19-inch rack due to its 1U size. So you now know whom to thank for spell binding special effects in future movies.