uncholowapo wrote:Thats pretty bogus. How did Sony design a "supposedly next gen" console when its stats are down below the XBox 360. I mean Xbox is good and all but it came out before the ps3 and therefore should have given Sony a heck of enough time to rethink it's design. It could have taken advantage of the release. Also I think if nVidia did give open software programers access to the GPU and RAM it would give Linux way more options for programming and would not infringe on the financial status of either company, but that just my opinion.
(friendly opinions and follow-up questions to follow.
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Sorry - I don't understand how you'd consider its stats are down below the Xbox 360. You mean for Linux or for playing games?
The PS3 has a much more non-traditional architecture than a 360. Normal PC architecture - like Linux expects - doesn't apply here.
What Linux considers the processor in the PS3 - the HyperThreaded PowerPC core - is only really used for setup and other overhead tasks. The Cell's other elements - the 6 SPEs - aren't general purpose processors that execute standard code - they're kinda like DSP math crunchers. In other words - the very abilities that make a PS3 a great game machine hobble it for Linux.
As one of the few owners of the PS2 Linux kit, I can tell you that running Linux on the PS2 was even stranger than running Linux on the PS3. PS2 Linux only had 32 Megs of RAM with a 200 MHz single threaded MIPS core. This is a fraction of the power of the PS2's Emotion Engine. It
really wasn't designed to run programs like that - it's a pure game machine. PS3 Linux is pretty decent by comparison - not equal to a high end PC running Linux - but for a console - it's pretty great.
Only the PS1 had what you'd consider a "PC Like" architecture. Normal PlayStation programming is done by a moderately fast processor for setup and a number of high speed DSPs crunching data that is streamed back and forth thru high bandwidth DMA. (See a pretty detailed description of the setup
here.) This is quite different from a PC/360-like fast central processor and video card. Heck - the PS2 doesn't even really
have a video card: with a 2560 bit-wide bus (not a typo!) - the GS is more like a frame buffer compositor than a graphics card.
As far as giving access to the GPU and RAM - I think it
would affect the financial status of both companies. That opens a huge can of worms - because at that point - you could copy decrypted PS3 games to the hard disc, and run them from Linux at full speed. I actually understand why this restriction is in place.
That being said - I do think there's room for improvement in the Linux graphics department. There's gotta be some kind of compromise that makes everyone happier - if not outright happy.
Cheers,
Paul