From IBM's website:
"The most distinguishing feature of the Cell Broadband Engine is that although all processors share main storage (the effective-address space that includes main memory), their function is specialized into two types -- the Power Processor Element (PPE) and the Synergistic Processor Element (SPE). The Cell Broadband Engine has one PPE and eight SPEs.
* The first type of processor, the PPE, is a 64-bit Power Architecture core. It is fully compliant with the 64-bit Power Architecture specification and can run 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and applications.
* The second type of processor, the SPE, is optimized for running compute-intensive applications, and it is not optimized for running an operating system.
The SPEs are independent processors, each running its own individual application programs. Each SPE has full access to coherent shared memory, including the memory-mapped I/O space. The designation synergistic for this processor was chosen carefully -- there is a mutual dependence between the PPE and the SPEs. The combination of the two working in harmony produces a greater effect than each working alone. The SPEs depend on the PPE to run the operating system and, in many cases, the top-level control thread of an application. The PPE depends on the SPEs to provide the bulk of the application performance. "
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