Running the PTP Cell/B.E on the Cell Broadband Engine

IBM's SDK for Multicore Acceleration IDE can now be run on a machine with a Cell BE processor (as of version 3.0). There are a few topics worth discussing if you are planning on utilizing this new supported platform to run the IDE. This document covers these topics.

Managed Builder Paths

The GNU and XL tool paths are at different locations on a native Cell BE machine than on a "typical", non-Cell machine. The PTP Cell/B.E's default paths reflect the default Cell SDK tool paths of a non-Cell computer, so these paths must be corrected. This can be done as follows:
  1. After installing the PTP Cell/B.E, open Eclipse preferences by clicking Window -> Preferences
  2. Open the GNU Tools Managed Build Paths preference page: Cell -> Managed Builder Paths -> GNU Tools Managed Build Paths
  3. Click Find it! to automatically find the GNU tools location, or click Browse... to manually select the location
  4. Do the same for the XL Tools Managed Build Paths preference page

Debugging Cell Applications

Debugging Cell applications while running the PTP Cell/B.E on a native Cell BE machine requires a few changes in the debugger configuration in order to function properly. Unlike attempting to debug Cell applications remotely via SSH, debugging locally does not require the use of gdbserver. Also, instead of creating a C/C++ Cell Target Application debug configuration, you can simply create a C/C++ Local Application configuration (see fig.1 below). Note: other debugger configurations/combinations are possible, but here I only describe one of them.

First, open the debug configuration screen by clicking Run -> Debug..., then create a new C/C++ Local Application debug configuration (fig. 1).

Figure 1: Creating a new C/C++ Local Application
Figure 1



After creating a new C/C++ Local Application launcher, you must properly configure the Debugger tab (see fig.2 below):

  1. Select the gdb/mi debugger.
  2. The GDB Debugger needs to be changed to ppu-gdb in order to be able to debug the SPU parts of the application as well as the PPU part.
  3. The GDB command set field also needs to be changed to Standard (Cell BE).


Figure 2: Properly configured Debugger tab
Figure 2

Running Cell Applications

Running applications locally on a Cell machine can be accomplished by using either the C/C++ Local Application or the C/C++ Cell Target Application launch configuration.

The C/C++ Cell Target Application launcher was initially designed to allow for the running/debugging of applications on a Cell simulator/machine, while the development of that application was done on a computer without a Cell processor. However, this same launcher can also be used to deploy an application locally if you are running the PTP Cell/B.E on a machine with a Cell processor. In order to accomplish this, all that needs to be done is to create a Cell Box environment (in the Cell Environments view) with the configuration option Localhost selected (instead of Remote host being selected). After clicking the green arrow to start the localhost Cell Box, it can then be used as the target environment in the C/C++ Cell Target Application launcher.