PS3 'it's a Computer' lark from Sony

scaramanga182 · 27 Jul 2006 at 13:17

Howdy. I've been reading a lot recently on forums and blogs about the PS3 having linux and acting as a PC although its always mainly fanboys shouting total rubbish. Could anyone clear up what 'Linux' it will have. If Sony's claims are true is there anything stopping me putting Linux Compatible versions Maya/Max/XSI/ etc on it and giving my self a damn fast Rendering machine as effictively it has 8 cores? A £500 ps3 would come very well to an 8-way opteron workstation if it was possible! I'm going to make a fairly safe guess and say no but if thats the case how possibley can Sony claim its a Computer? Sensible answers would be good as I don't want to start a fanboy war!

Cheers

Kreeeee · 27 Jul 2006 at 13:21

It's 7 very limited cores and no I guarantee you won't be able to install any 3rd party applications on it, it's a sony product.

Wrathamon · 27 Jul 2006 at 14:20

The cell chip has one PowerPC core, and then eight small DSP cores (called "synergistic processing elements" (SPE)) with limited memory which are essentially number crunchers for processing intensive tasks - and only seven SPE's enabled in the PS3.

Linux would just run on the single PowerPC core... any application then wishing to divert number crunching to the SPE's would have to be coded from scratch, but what the chances of Sony allowing that ....?

It's one of the big hurdles for games developers with the PS3 - as the games are essentially written in two languages ... one for the PPC core, and another for the SPE's.

pinkacidbootson · 27 Jul 2006 at 14:25

It will come with a form of Linux pre-installed according to what Sony have said so far, and many of the components are upgradable with hardware from other maufacturers, for example the HDD, card reader and USB wi-fi adapter.

Psyk · 27 Jul 2006 at 14:53

Yeah it's probably just the core operating system that's based on linux, just like how the core operating system on the Xbox was based on Windows NT. Technically speaking I suppose it might be possible to run PowerPC/Linux based software, but I would have thought the architechture is too different for any normal software to run on it without any serious tweaking.

Werewolf · 27 Jul 2006 at 15:19

Wasn't there a similar arguement about the PS2 being a Computer?

I beleive it's all part of a tax dodge by sony (or was*), computers get a different tax rate to games consoles with the result that it can be profitable for a company to argue that it's a computer (they pay less tax per unit).

*I'm not sure if the loophole was closed up.

Abooie · 27 Jul 2006 at 15:29

What I'm interested in is, isn't linux distributed under an open source license which requires the code to be freely available? How are Sony going to be legally able 'lock it down' to stop easy hacking? Or is linux going to run in a kind of sand box on another low level OS?

Sony have been a bit quiet on how linux will be implemented and it'll be pretty interesting how they handle it.

pinkacidbootson · 27 Jul 2006 at 15:39

Werewolf said:
Wasn't there a similar arguement about the PS2 being a Computer?

I beleive it's all part of a tax dodge by sony (or was*), computers get a different tax rate to games consoles with the result that it can be profitable for a company to argue that it's a computer (they pay less tax per unit).

*I'm not sure if the loophole was closed up.

Read this

It (PS2 Linux) was used as an attempt to help classify the PS2 as a computer to achieve tax exempt status from certain EU taxes (that computers have that game consoles do not). However, Sony lost the case in June 2006.

IIRC a lot of what Sony has been saying about PS3 Linux in interviews has suggested that it will be seperate from the main OS and will also be pre-installed on every PS3. IF this turned out to be true, then it would help Sony's 'computer' claim a lot. But we don't really know yet, so we just have to wait...

Psyk · 27 Jul 2006 at 16:00

smcshaw said:
What I'm interested in is, isn't linux distributed under an open source license which requires the code to be freely available? How are Sony going to be legally able 'lock it down' to stop easy hacking? Or is linux going to run in a kind of sand box on another low level OS?

Sony have been a bit quiet on how linux will be implemented and it'll be pretty interesting how they handle it.

Maybe the kernel (basically the core of the OS) has to be open source, but Sony can run whatever else they like on top of that without the need to open source it.