Just a few weeks ago, IBM has been completely taken by surprise by Apple's decision to break the relationship between the two companies and go for a more alluring Intel.

IBM's attempt to talk the people from Apple into using the Cell processor the company had just developed for Sony's gaming consoles was a complete failure.

In order to counterbalance the negative effect Apple's decision had on IBM's image, Big Blue has decided to license Cell in order to be used in other areas as well.

According to IBM's announcement, the first field to benefit from Cell's processing power will be the medical one. However, what's really interesting is to see what Peter Hofstee, Cell chief scientist and architect, IBM, had to say about this subject.

After stating his skepticism regarding the processor's implementation into PCs or even servers, seeing that the software that could really put the Cell to work hasn't been developed yet, Hofstee has also commented that the IBM research centers are working hard on modifying the Cell in order to be able to run the Linux operating system.

An alliance between the Cell and Linux would mean a huge step forward for the open source operating system, which once again proves its flexibility and the fact that it can be adapted for the most advanced technologies. Now it remains to be seen which fields would be interested in a Linux/The Cell solution.