Researchers at a new computing lab at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County will develop applications for IBM's Cell Broadband Engine, the processor that powers Sony's PlayStation3 gaming console, the university announced.

Visualization and computer modeling applications for aerospace/defense, financial services, healthcare/life sciences industries as well as weather and climate change prediction are among the areas researchers will be involved in at the Multicore Computational Center, which is to open Friday.

IBM, Sony and Toshiba, which jointly developed the new processor, are also partnering with Georgia Tech on a similar center, where researchers are developing a community of programmers to broaden industry support for the new processor.

The CBE combines nine separate processors in one chip for hyper-realistic graphics and other advanced computational functions. The processor is eventually expected to run a range of hardware from IBM and other companies.

--Associated Press