Sony intros PS3-based video rendering system

At the Siggraph 2008 exhibition being held in Las Vegas, Sony on Tuesday announced the first of its ZEGO-branded hybrid multi-core processing platforms for HD video production with the BCU-100 computing unit. The ZEGO platform is based on Sony's Cell Broadband Engine first seen in its PlayStation 3 gaming console along with RSX graphics technologies, and was developed to cut the processing times of creating and rendering increasingly complex high-resolution visual effects and computer graphics.

Thanks to the on-chip parallelism offered by the Cell processor, Sony could optimize the BCU-100 to quickly process certain types of applications. To get the most of the unit's parallel, multi-core and stream computing abilities, the electronics giant is also working with software development companies.

The BCU-100 can be mounted in a 19-inch rack thanks to its 1U size. The unit will come to the US market later this year, but prices have not yet been announced. [via Fareastgizmos]