1. In a cell processor having a main memory, one or more power processor units (PPU) and one or more synergistic processing units (SPU), each SPU having a processor and an associated local memory, a method for managing tasks to be executed by the one or more of the SPUs, the method comprising the steps of: under control of an SPU task manager (STM) running on one or more of the SPUs, reading one or more task definitions stored in the main memory into the local memory of a selected SPU; based on information contained in the one or more task definitions, loading code and/or data related to the one or more task definitions from the main memory into the local memory of the selected SPU; and performing one or more tasks with the selected SPU using the code and/or data.