AppleInsider is reporting that Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console will support Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger operating system. “Sony is expected to offer optional hard drives for the PlayStation 3 with potential memory capacity of 80 or 120 GB. It remains to be decided whether the standard version of the PS3 will come complete with a hard drive. The operating system has also yet to be clarified. The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems (such as Linux or Apple’s Tiger).”
//The operating system has also yet to be clarified. The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems (such as Linux or Apple’s Tiger).//
So … just because the processor should be able to support Linux or Tiger … that means the PS3 itself will allow us to install Tiger on it?
I wonder if Apple would have anything to say about that.
I thought that Cell wasn’t binary-compatible with stock PPC970s? And if so, how will this work? Apple’s been pretty adamant that they won’t be using video game processors in Macs, and I find it unlikely that there’s a hidden binary for Cell on current discs. Which would necessitate a whole new disc for PS3s… It just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that’s likely, and more like the kind of thing that is a pipe dream of a reporter somewhere. The linux part I believe, though.
So the system could have the capacity to support Apple’s Tiger. That doesn’t in any way mean Apple will support the system. My mac “could run” Windows if there was a PPC port. That doesn’t mean it will, or that Microsoft would ever produce such a thing.
Microsoft does have a PPC port of Windows XP and they do sale it (pre-installed on an Apple Dual 2GHz G5 box); they call it the X-Box 2 SDK.
windows was ported to ppc and alpha with nt4 it was just unprofitable for ms to sell it
Right now to use Linux on a PlayStation 2 you have to pay for it (the boot code is closed source). It could be really nice to have OpenDarwin running on a PlayStation.
This is a 3rd party British gamer magazine, the sort that love to spread rumors of the latest triple-breasted-ninjas-playing-tiddlywinks Japanese games. Its most likely a simple case of the article author not being very technically competent thus thinking “PowerPC CPU == Mac”.
That’s my line and I’m sticking to it.
Damien
It sure looks like one, but it seems to be an official Sony site. DOh!
Damien
Yup, looks like they cite an official Sony site! Could be test ballon from Sony, to figure out wheither they should accept this deal?
Well Sony, if you read this: I don’t know if I’d buy a barebone PS3, but a PS3 running MacOS X! Wow, guess I would have to buy this machine!
how could you trust an article saying:
“memory capacity of 80 or 120 GB”
It’s clearly not memory that’s on my HD.
Actually it is. It’s called secondary memory.
OS X
Amiga OS
Linux
MS
Risc OS
AIX……………….
PS3s will even come with their own space scraft all for $99.99 oh and dont forget the free 142inch lcd tv…. + extra $50.00 voucher….
tivo type funtions and cctv… out of the box…….
all for $99.99 and rip off £99.99….
if its true will Apple allow it, I mean legaly, everybody seems to sue everybody about almost anything.
Or Aint Apple a Hardware Company and wont allow apple software to run on anything else but their “own” hardware (so it doesn’t belong to us hehehehe)
This comment is IIRC a couple of months old and originally came from a Ken Kutaragi interview.
I never took the OS X comment to be more than just a suggestion…
This is rather unlikely. Sure, it could be made to work.. the PPC core in the Cell is close enough to a PPC 970 that the kernel would probably just need a few tweaks, and if Apple wanted to it could write a boot loader and drivers and such. But it would be a huge amount of work. The PPC core in the Cell uses in-order execution and has a stripped down Altivec unit.
The Cell gets its performance from the SPEs, not from the PPC-like part of the chip. And Mac OS X wouldn’t be able to use the SPEs at all. (The SPEs are NOT PPC-compatible.) So Mac OS X would be running only on the PPC core, leaving all those SPEs idle. And 256 MB of RAM really isn’t enough for Tiger.
So not bloody likely.
Since when do processors support operating systems? I always thought it’s the operating system that supports the hardware. Here’s some other hot speculation: Xbox 1 may support OS X Leopard 🙂
# re Unlikely:
The primary core of the Cell CPU is infact just a stripped down and optimised 970, which acts as an interface between all the vector cores.
# re “could run” doesn’t…:
WindowsNT was ported to PowerPC, so I guess you can run windows if you want now.
WindowsNT was ported to PowerPC, so I guess you can run windows if you want now.
Windows NT was ported to PowerPC. I have Windows NT v4.5 and it supports quite a few PowerPC systems. Microsoft just dusted it off for the OS in their upcoming XBox 360. In fact, the E3 XBox 360 demos were all running on Mac G5’s. The 360’s were all just empty shells.
http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=in…
Is it just me or has quality control seriously gone out the window here? I’m NOT trying to troll is the sad thing. However this article is a joke and whoever posted it clearly should’ve known that if they had so much as looked at it. I seem to remember a time when this place only linked to really worthwhile material. Not completely inane crap and whiny opinions.
People always remember the good old days of websites when the websites were good and the inhabitants were also good. Why, scarcely does an article grace the front page of Slashdot without some youth stepping forward lamenting that the days of yore when Slashdot was a place of quality discussion and linked to only the finest articles have past. Well, except that was never the case.
The baiting posts are not themselves especially new here, either. Although rare are the days becoming, when some manner of Apple speculation, announcement, or history isn’t posted. I suppose if it has all become too much to bare, that you can always look for greener pastures.
For as long as we keep reading and discussing things that we feel are beneath the repute we associate with the sites we frequent, we shall continue to be the instruments of our own frustration.
Why is this interesting I was running linux on my dreamcast years ago.
A more interesting story is the demo movie of killzone only running at 5fps in reality.
or…
Sony’s Kutaragi saying the PS3 can’t be sold at a price targetting household.
Oh well maybe my employer will purchase one for work, purely for research purposes of course.
I would like them to hook up, not for OS X on the PS3, but to open and use each other’s technology. In terms of DRM’s (FairPlay and Open MagicGate), digital media recievers and digital audio recievers. OS X to come on new X86 VAIO’s. iTunes (including FairPlay) to PS3 audio streaming. Quicktime decoders within the PS3. iTunes and SonicStage/Connect Music Store merged. Open MagicGate DRM on the iPod. Actually all this would seem more realistic if Sony ever bought Apple.
gamepod
It is just too much fun when the hyperbole of modern marketing infests every aspect of computing. All this extensive vaporspec on the vaporware will lead to a market letdown.
According to a number of reports, the PS3 has slipped to 2007. Now Sony says it will support Mac OS X Tiger. Which will be dead and gone in 2007. Doesn’t make a lot of sense.
It is a matter of survival for Sony to team up with the little evil, Apple, to fight the big evil, Microsoft.
However, one must question the very sanity of this apparent decision. As many have found out, teaming up with Apple is not a good thing. Sounds like Sony is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Good luck, Sony. And cut back on the Sonyshine.
Don’t beleive a word of it. If you do – hold your breath until it happens. Apple is in Intel pockets now. Don’t forget it. Utter BS. Maybe in 2012.
it’s possible, so long as apple and sony come to some agreement… but no way this will get done without apple’s approval.
sony+apple+nvidia VS microsoft+windows+ati
battle of the century
The real question is whether anyone cares. The only person who might care is something who does not want their system running on this box, nobody actually would use PS3 as a serious computer. Pointless article. The only real thing it does prove is that Apple could have gone the cell route if they wanted too, which it did not want to do for a number of reasons. It likely would not have been an ideal solutions but a workable one.
Even better, it would be nice if PS3 supported the new PowerPC version of Amiga OS 4.0. Now that would be a cool feat.
🙂
This story doesn’t sound right. Why would Apple spend the resources to port their code to yet another architecture in the midst of a monumental transition? Which third party applications would be ported over? Where are the tools to port code to Intel and Cell at the same time?
Something is rotten at Apple Insider.
Great Reporting OSNews, PS3 to support OSX! ROFLMAO, this site has been a joke for a long while now, my only regret is having to come here and filter all the crap out and get the maybe 1-2 relevant articles I need. SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE A GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO OSNEWS!
REPLY TO PEOPLE SAYING SOMETHING’S UP AT Apple Insider:
Nothing’s wrong w/ Apple Insider, unlike OSNews they stated the *CPU* could support OSX, as it’s PPC architecture at the core. OSNews just wants to put sensationlism on their website to draw readers w/ Euginia well wishing OSX on a beige box or sub US$199 macs, same thing, they want to just grab clicks and readers w/ “OSX on Cheap Gaming Console !”
Apple likes to control both hardware and software. The PS3 doesn’t come with open firmware does it? Apple would have to write drivers for the rest of the hardware in the PS3 for someone to directly run it as well. Not to mention the differences between PPC and Cell.
The only way I can MAYBE see OS X running on PS3 is with Mac on Linux. But probably not with Apple’s blessings. I also don’t think Apple would let them kill their market for any Mac model undercutting them with something like this.
Notice that Sony didn’t say that OS X runs on PS3 just that the CPU is compatible. That’s like saying X-box has a Windows compatible CPU. Technically it does. But how many people are running XP on it? If anything this probably means that the chip it’self can run OS X if put in the appropriate hardware. That’s all. It takes more than slapping a CPU that could possibly run OSX into a device and hooking up a hard drive to actually do it.
Strange things have happened but this is just hype. I’m not ready to believe this until Apple makes an announcement. Linux is a lot more likely as it runs on everything under the sun.
They have taken this from http://www.sony.co.uk web site. It has been there for more than month now. Move along nothing here.
Here is the link. Scroll down to the bottom of page.
http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.action?article=1121156666920…
As you said: worthless information. A waste of a “news” item here on OS”News”.
When the Cell processor was unveiled, the hype said it would support any operating system IF the software maker chose to optimise/port it for the Cell. I’d say this is just a continuation of that hype.
I’ll register when stories get those cute +/- rating buttons. Really.
AppleInsider is reporting that Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console will support Microsoft’s Windows operating system. “Sony is expected to offer optional hard drives for the PlayStation 3 with potential memory capacity of 80 or 120 GB. It remains to be decided whether the standard version of the PS3 will come complete with a hard drive. The operating system has also yet to be clarified. The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems” (such as Linux or Microsoft’s Windows).
Honestly. It’s just as likely to run Vista or another Microsoft OS on here. I mean, they have some NT kernel running on PPC for the 360 (and normal NT releases for PPC were made at one point). So, by the story submitter’s definition of “support”, Windows also is supported.
Wooolah!
I hear the reason IBM won’t release OS/2 as open source is because they are busy porting OS/2 to Cell.
The secret code name for OS/2 for Cell is … “mitosis”.
😉
I call for Thom Holwerda to be fired from OSNEWS.COM
NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
The Sony UK site is just spouting what OS’s could conceivably work on the PS3.
I think everyone has forgot to think about why ?
All these fanboys saying it would be sweet to run macosX on your PS3 ..why ? It’s a game console. unless you buy an optional mouse and keyboard and stuff it would be useless … and it’s still pretty crap then. How about you put a real mac and save the trouble !
think everyone has forgot to think about why ?
All these fanboys saying it would be sweet to run macosX on your PS3 ..why ? It’s a game console. unless you buy an optional mouse and keyboard and stuff it would be useless … and it’s still pretty crap then. How about you put a real mac and save the trouble !
why buy a keyboard when you can remote admin it afterall os X is a BSD no one said that it you had to use a silly one button mouse to use it
you mean to tell me Apple would allow OS X to be installed on $300-400 hardware that they do not control?
hehe…. yeah right
They could, but then again, why? it would make their x86 machines obsolete; you’d simply get end users going out and purchasing Playstation 3’s, hook up a monitor, and voila, they would have a low cost machine.
As for running other operating systems, it would be nice if they released the machine AND made their system more open as to allow end users to purchase the machines and use them as a desktop – FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux etc. It would be a great little machine, and moderately priced.
I wonder what the prize of a PS3 will be now the prize of a X-box appears to be at $299.
battle royale indeed.
oh, please please please please please please please!!
well, the ppc part of cell is a ppc, so it can run every ppc os, tiger too.
but the video card is different from usual video card, if i remember correctly, so need a specia driver and maybe implementation of some feature. plus the spe part of the chell need to be supported by recoding library and programs. but it is not impossibile, only need a big and serius work by apple…
Why drop the word ‘processor’ from the linked articles heading?
IBM’s Mikael Haglund gave an interesting Cell presentation at the Swedish AmiGBG fair. Here are small summary:
Mr Haglund described the current situation with Apple as a ‘marriage break up’. He speculated Apple may be upset by IBM’s various new ‘mistresses’ (such as for example Sony, Toshiba and Nintendo). He also countered that, unlike what Apple seems to suggest in public, IBM is still leading in terms of the Watts/Performance ratio with regard to their processors compared to available x86 technology and he believes this will likely continue to be so for the foreseeable future. He also explained that the new Cell processor technology includes a simple yet highly clocked PPC compatible processing core, but for software to really take full advantage of the new Cell technology, software needs to be optimized for using the specialized SPEs. He compared the Cell to how the classic Amigas operated, as the more impressive Amiga software took full advantage of its specialized custom chips. He wasn’t only thinking about complex Playstation3 games taking advantage of such technology (for instance dealing with lots more complex and more quantitive collisions), but also with regard to possible desktop orientated usages, like for instance for enhancing the performance of multimedia software or for advanced spreadsheet calculations.
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=1&rev_…
For the full presentation stay tuned for the official AmiGBG DVD. 🙂
Seems SONY has plans to take over Apple.Their all-in-one media box will get more shape.
This AppleInsider article is a clear example when someone reads only the things he want to read.
It is taken from Kuturagi interview. He said that only Linux is supported and answered that operating systems like OSX would be possible if vendors would choose to support PS3.
But I can bet my right hand, left leg and both ears that Apple would not be happy if their OS would not run on their machines only. Remember, Apple is hardware reseller.
It reminds me of the good old day when Homecomputers, Like the Atari ST or Commodore Amiga, were popular. The new PS3 coud be such an Homecomputer on a very high teconlogical level. Maybe the aera of the PCs is comming to an end…
Apple is opening a new store in the Pentagon City Mall, Arlington, Virginia. Guess who’s opening a store next door? Sony!
off-topic
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Are MS and SONY in the same high definition dvd camp by the way?
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This is just a bunch of hype.
I don’t mean to troll or anything but I think that if Sony is to support one operating system It would have to be Linux or NetBSD, the reasons?
Microsoft is competing with Sony on the gameconsole/Home Entertainment market, (dificult partnership)
Apple would never allow MacOSX to run on Non-Apple Hardware and Tiger will be obsolete by the time PS3 comes out
IBM no longer supports OS/2
Open source BeOS is less ready than Linux
Open and FreeBSD are optimized for X86.
That leave us with two open source kernels that are cross plataform enough to be ported for the cell. And it’s good to remember that Linux is currently easier to use than NetBSD.
Of course, because of the license Sony could release a NetBSD fork that could be easily integrated to the PS3 Hardware and that would feature an easier to use Package installation and a set of Point and Click tools.
But of course It could be that they completely get on the FOSS wave and build a linux distro that could run on the PS3 easily (Or pay Progeny to create it)
uhm, well, when hell freezes over again…
So P3 will run tiger so that Apple Hardcore gamers can launch classic and play marathon and super breakout right?
/me runs…