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OSX on PS3


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The article I posted says there is a boot selector in PS3 OS which lets you pick which OS or partition to boot from after installing the support for other os's. I dont really know what to do with open firmware. Also dont want to partition my drive so I was thinking of using one artitioned in my Mac and swapping it in.

Maybe I will try next week, the PS3 has gone to the beach with the kids.

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  • 5 months later...

I don't see all the bitching at people trying this. I mean IF this could work on a PS3 or Xbox 360 you have a CHEAP super computer almost. I mean with the processors in each of these (assuming they get it to run natively) the processing power would be unmatched. The ONLY downside to the systems is the 512 ram.

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The lack of memory would hurt big-time; remember also that it uses a shared memory architecture for graphics- and many modern graphics cards have 512MB alone. But the processing power is pretty damn impressive. Getting OS X to work would be a *major* feat however. The Xbox can't run Windows just because it has a Pentium 3. The N64 can't run IRIX just because it has a R4400-variant. The Cell is *similar* to the G5, but PowerPC =/= G3/G4/G5/etc. We do have evidence that Mac OS was using a Cell processor, but the more likely explanation is that it was a G5/Mac Pro/Hackintosh with a add-on coprocessor with a Cell, as wanamio mentioned in the other thread.

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maybe its just me but im pretty sure the ps3 is the most advanced consumer electronic available. the RSX graphic chip doesnt use shared memory and runs at the equivalent of 2 512mb nvidia6800's, which blows away my current desktop setup. the 512ram could be a slowdown but with 7 cores at 3.2ghz it would probably still haul ass. The cores are specifically designed to handle certain tasks geared towards gaming which may hurt it being used as a regular computer. If anyone gets this to work it would be pretty awesome. I would love to have a supercomputer hooked up to my 42" plasma.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I own a PS3 60gb with linux installed on it. It runs pretty sluggish. The PS3 can be used as a great server, but as far as everything else.. the 512 megs of ram just don't cut it. There is no access to the GPU unless you are in the XMB, or have launched a game title.

 

For the most part, I'd say that Sony is making a semi big mistake by allowing another OS to be installed onto the PS3. Like the PSP, it will turn into a pirating nightmare.. though I don't see people downloading 40+ GB blu-ray games on bittorrent anytime soon.

 

Sony made a great product, but due to cost they couldnt make it as well as they should have. The specs for "Other OS" would have been perfect IF:

 

RAM was increased to 1024 MB for the PS3 60GB

Video RAM was increased to 1024 MB for the PS3 60GB

HDD Capacity was increased to 100 GB for the PS3 60GB

Video Acceleration was allowed in "Other OS"

Built-in WIFI was better then {censored}. To get a solid connection, I needed the router in the same room as the PS3.

The Blu-Ray drive also wrote to BR, DVD, and CD

3rd Party OS's were 100% built to run on Cell, not just patches and tweaks.

 

The PS3 with the smaller HDD is pretty much useless if you ask me. No wifi, no MMC reader, tiny HDD.. makes PSP to PS3 impossible.

 

So basically, I'd say that other then running OS 10 Server, your setting high hopes for a machine that is designed to run high-end games. The Cell CPU isn't made for Personal Computing... hence the reason why Linux runs SLOWER on PS3 then on my 1st gen iMac.

 

Hacking more RAM into the PS3 would only be possible by stacking the chip, or somehow finding a more dense one. I would say that Sony has thought that through with firmware locks. Seeing as you could link a Mod Chip to d1 and the RAM to pull the PS3 game security codes. Also, Sony releases more firmware upgrades for PSP then I have ever seen any manufacturer release firmware for any product. They started at 1.0 and are up to 3.5 in about 2 years.

 

*EDIT* PSP to PS3 is possible using USB WIFI adapters.

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\

though I don't see people downloading 40+ GB blu-ray games on bittorrent anytime soon.

 

 

why not? bandwith is always increasing...On a torrent with a decent s/l ratio that 40 gigs wouldnt take more than a few hours (for me at least)....

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PS3 doesn't have 512 MB of RAM. It has 256 MB RAM, and 256 MB Video RAM allocated to the RSX. The problem here is two things. 1, it would not be a "supercomputer", because OS X would only be able to run on the one 3.2 GHz General Purpose core, which would be fast, but not as if it used 7 other cores.

 

Second, the RSX, if OS X ran on the chipset, would not be accelerated. First reason is lack of drivers, and since no one knows the complexities, and Sony would never help, it's moot. But the second reason, is that the "install other OS" actually runs under a hypervisor, emulating a VGA card, and no access to the RSX is granted for secondary operating systems.

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why not? bandwith is always increasing...On a torrent with a decent s/l ratio that 40 gigs wouldnt take more than a few hours (for me at least)....

I suppose I find it cheaper to buy the game, then to invest in a BR writer, BR-disks, and potentially being sniffed out by the feds :thumbsup_anim:

 

 

I didn't know if anyone had read this, but Sony did officially state the the PS3 could run OS 10... they just didn't tell us how.

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The real magic of cell lies with its eight "synergistic processor elements," or SPEs, shown in Figure 2. These are specially designed processors created from scratch by the IBM/Sony/Toshiba team just for Cell. They're not compatible with Power or PowerPC code in any way;

Source

 

It should be noted however that the SPE instruction set and AltiVec while very similar, are not identical. There are different instructions, different data types, the SPEs have more registers and of course the SPEs have a local store.

Source

 

Just because two chips have similar architectures, it doesn't mean stuff will run without completely rewriting it. At the very least, OS X would need to be recompiled to work with it. While you might be able to compile Darwin to run on the PS3, most of what makes OS X OS X isn't publicly available to do something like that.

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