I.B.M. demonstrated two such applications at a gathering in New York today. One was to blend satellite photographs with geological data on landscape contours and elevation data. The result was to be able to do a simulated "flyover," shifting the perspective by moving a joystick, of Mount Rainier in Washington.
Another was to assemble multiple scans inside the body. Three-dimensional images that would have taken minutes or longer to render, even at hospital centers, were presented almost instantly with the Cell technology. Analysts said the Cell systems open the door to using real-time imaging technology during patient consultations or during surgery.
The Cell-based server computers will be available this summer. The machines, an I.B.M. official said, will be priced at $25,000 to $35,000, while full-fledged supercomputers can cost millions of dollars.
The Cell servers will run mostly on the Linux operating system, which is popular in high-performance computing. I.B.M. plans to make the Cell technology widely available to universities and software companies interested in developing applications that will run on Cell chips.
"We want to see how far we can take Cell technology beyond games, and the biggest challenge to making that work is the software tools for building new applications," said William M. Zeitler, senior vice president for I.B.M.'s systems and technology group.
Visualization can provide a picture of a massive amount of information, often enabling a human user to absorb and understand more information rapidly. That is the practical reason for applications from medical imaging for physicians to terrain mapping for fighter pilots.
Video games work on much the same principle. More and more of computing, according to I.B.M. researchers, may be presented visually to users in the future. "We're hoping that this gaming stuff will get us to the next level of user interfaces," said James A. Kahle, the chief technologist for Cell systems and an I.B.M. research fellow.
That may be only a hope today, but industry analysts say the Cell approach looks promising. "If you see the future of computing as "give me the answer now,' it favors something like Cell, a computer platform designed for photorealistic modeling," said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, a technology research firm.
