Sony's Cell: "programming nightmare" or "far less complicated"?

In a 2641-word article that is two parts hype, one part balance, Forbes Asia author Daniel Lyons writes of the promise of the cell chip that will power the PlayStation 3 console to be launched by Sony later this year. Here's a quick summary of the article.

Believe the hype? The Cell is called a "supercomputer for the living room," a "mind-boggling" performer of "2 trillion calculations per second," the kind of power that enables programmers to "create videogames that look as realistic as film." (Where have we heard that promise before?) Cell will run "at least" 10 times faster than the very fastest Intel Pentium chip and will usher in "the next microchip revolution" including "mind-blowing," "fast and seductively immersive games, virtual-reality romps, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows with multiple endings and a panoply of new services yet to be dreamed up."

Source: JoyStiq