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Sony, Toshiba And IBM To Develop New OS

Posted by timothy on from the more-the-merrier dept.

gaijin writes: "According to this article in the English version of the Japanese newspaper 'Daily Yomirui', Sony will use its experience developing the PS2 OS (hey, wasn't it Linux based?) and work with Toshiba and IBM at the hardware side to create a new OS that 'would allow personal computers and home appliances to exchange huge volumes of data, including the high-resolution graphics of a television screen, through a broadband connection.'"

8 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. PS2 & Linux. by EnglishTim · · Score: 4, Informative

    The PS2 does not run any form of Linux.
    However, Linux is used on the PS2 Dev kits for developing games. (The PS2 Dev kits are effectively PCs with a built-in PS2 - the dev kits emulates the DVD/CDROM etc... if needed)

  2. Re:High resolution pictures? by mindriot · · Score: 3, Informative

    At least the PAL system (mostly used in Europe), it's 768x576.

  3. PS2 *DOES* officially run Linux! by Space+cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... but only in Japanese for now (see http://www.ps2linux.com/)

    Simon.

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
  4. Doomed from the start? by Phil+Wherry · · Score: 5, Informative
    While nothing's 100% certain, history suggests that efforts like this might have difficulty achieving success.

    There have been a number of fairly spectacular failures in this arena. Consider, for example:
    • Taligent. This was an Apple-HP-IBM joint venture aimed at developing operating system software. Four years passed, and much money was spent. Much hype was produced, but I don't think they ever shipped a product.
    • Kaleida. This was an Apple-IBM joint venture aimed at developing (yep!) operating system software. No product resulted.
    • OS/2. This one's a little different since a product (and, for that matter, a pretty good one) resulted. But pride-of-ownership and internal competition issues killed the product anyway.

    Software development successes seem to start with a small team who understand the position and purpose of the product. Once that's achieved, then the team can scale up. I'd be concerned that the three companies behind this announcement are likely to have difficulty assembling an appropriately small and well-focused core team.
  5. Re:High resolution pictures? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Since when was a telivision image high resolution? I isn't somewhere around 352x240?

    You isn't?

    If you meant IT isn't, then you'd be correct - it isn't anywhere near 352x240.

    NTSC resolution (including overscan area) is more like 720x482 (horizontal is subjective, as there is no "fixed" X resolution - but 720 is close enough)

  6. Yes, but not as its primary operating system by XNormal · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's nice to be able to run Linux on your PS2 but that's not what it's running when you are playing Tekken.

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
  7. There will be no such thing! by MadMirko · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check Gamefront Magazine (German). Sony denied the claims of that Japanese newspaper, calling them a misunderstanding. Sony, IBM and Toshiba are developing a shared broadband network, no OS.

  8. Re:Huh?? by hyrdra · · Score: 3, Informative

    You should note that X10.com is a company, while X-10 is a protocol, which (albeit patented and requiring royalty) other companies sell as well. NEVER buy from that horrid X10.com company -- buy from Home Automation instead.

    It's bad what some companies do and then an entire technology gets a bad taste because of it...

    --


    "I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95