Octopiler has more work to do than most compilers. For one thing, it must create instructions in a different language for the eight SPEs than for the PowerPC core. For another, it must divvy up software among the nine cores and govern how those programs communicate and share memory.

And it has to scrutinize source code for the specific "single instruction, multiple data" tasks that SPEs can perform. Those tasks economize chip operations by performing the same operation on multiple data elements in one fell swoop.