ppietro wrote:
I've never heard anything like that statement before. Here's the truth - at least as far as I know it.
The Cell has 8 SPEs, but as used in the Playstation 3, only 7 are enabled. The 8th is locked out in silicon. This makes for cheaper chips, since you only have to verify that 7 work. Also your chip yields are higher since there's a good chance that 7 work as opposed to all 8 working. The 8th may or may not be working - but since it's locked out, you can't know.
From there, the OtherOS reserves 1 SPE for the key vault feature - this is the SPE running in isolation that provides hardware encryption. This leaves 6 SPEs for general use. We can see these SPEs as the small Fixstars logos at boot-time. (Or mini-penguins if you're running older builds of YDL).
That's what I know. The blog quoted is either the best scoop of all time, or totally unfounded speculation.
Cheers,
Paul
The more I think about it, that guy didn't make sense. Because the 8th one is locked out at the factory.
But do you remember sony's statement as to why they removed otheros from the PS3 slim? It went something like this...
"In order to offer the OtherOS install, SCE would need to continue to maintain the OtherOS hypervisor drivers for any significant hardware changes this costs SCE. One of our key objectives with the new model is to pass on cost savings to the consumer with a lower retail price."
Correct me on this if I am wrong, wasn't the 7th SPE dedicated to the "hypervisor"?
If that is true then sony had 3 reasons to remove OtherOs support from fat PS3's they are as follows:
1.) Prevent as many people as possible from being able to execute an exploit.
2.) Save money by not having to update the hypervisor at every firmware update.
3.) Open up the 7th SPE for the gameos to use, Because the need of a "hypervisor" is gone after the otheros is removed.
The exact function of the hypervisor is unclear to me, all my past knowledge tells me it was only for otheros because there is currently no exploits to run unsigned code on the gameos, therefore the hyperviser is not needed. But correct me if I'm wrong.
Also unrelated to hypervisor stuff, the other day I said that I had experienced the annoying "text box" while using a keyboard for the gameos web browser on a hdtv. Well by accident I found out that while your ps3 is set to 1280x720 the text box will appear, but when your resolution is set to 1080i or 1080p you can type directly onto a webpage. I thought 720p was considered "HD" but I guess not. I use 720 because it makes the text bigger and easier to read from a distance on a 32' screen. But my PS3 froze today while browsing the web in the gameos (which happens about 5 times a day) and I walked up to it and held down the power button like I normally do. When I came back the video settings had reset, making me do the automatic setting of 1080i and then the discovery ocurred.
PlayStation 3 80GB (CECHE01) (Upgraded to Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB), FW 3.15, YDL 6.2
Samsung LN-T3242HX 32" LCD
Logitech Bluetooth MediaBoard Pro
PS Network ID: sirgrinalot