> It would prove an interesting comparison, the Cell does have a speed
> advantage but as an in order processor it might lose to a slower G4.

I found some DMIPS figures comparing G4 and Cell PPE:

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PS3 Cell 3.2GHz: 1879.630
PowerPC G4 1.25GHz: 2202.600
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http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=880950

So in terms of DMIPS the Cell PPE would equal a 1.067 GHz G4.

> Everyone keeps thinking of the units as additional processor cores when
> its probab ly more accurate to think of them as specialized coprocessors.

The only people I've seen calling the SPEs as complete processor cores have been the ones who are either uneducated on this matter or have been uttering marketing verbiage (or both). But that's surely far from "everyone". I guess this is the same kind of people calling the MPC5121e a triple-core processor ;-)