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." 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."

It's hard not to get excited about the possibilities of this chip given such a stirring cavalcade of next-gen imagery, and the excitement builds as Lyons trots out James Kahle, the IBM chip engineer who oversaw the design of the processor, who tells Forbes that Cell will "spawn the next generation of growth in the industry."

To insert just a smidge of credulity into the article, the author does manage to mention a few drawbacks. Chief among the drawbacks is the danger that Cell will be difficult to program for. Lyons quotes Marc Tremblay, chief architect of IBM rival Sun Microsystems, who says that "The programming model is a nightmare."

Finally, of course, there are the obligatory quotes from developers, including Jeremy Gordon, head honcho at San Francisco-based Secret Level, who told Forbes: "Anyone who worked on the PlayStation 2 is jumping for joy" because the PS3 is much easier to develop for.

Whether the PS3 is a joy or nightmare to develop for won't be clear until developers have had a chance to play with it for a couple years. It's not fair to expect the first raft of PS3 titles to take advantage of a paradigm-shift in processor architecture. It may also be unrealistic to expect developers to spend oodles more time and money retooling multi-platform titles to take advantage of the PS3's unique architecture. Chances are that third-party developers will be content to develop once and port thrice when it comes to next-gen development. First-party developers and exclusive content is another story, however, and this is where the PS3 may shine.