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Sony, Toshiba And IBM To Develop New OS
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.'"
It looks to me like they want something with Digital Rights Management, but don't want to work with Microsoft (and Linux is too open). Evil.
It's also worth noting that 2005 is about the time the next Playstation should emerge. That's not a coincidence.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
... but this sounds like more of a PR op than anything else. Since when has a game console shuffled more data than a workstation or even a desktop computer? And since when has a TV (even an HDTV) been higher resolution than a 21" monitor?
It's PR BS, but hopefully the OS will have some merit. Choice is good.
What does this new OS provide that we don't already have and are not already capable of doing? You can already watch TV on your computer and view your computer's monitor on your TV. Regular NTSC resolution isn't that high anyway and is easily handled by a computer. You can already store television programs on your computer -- in fact, we even have things like TiVo which are consumer devices just for that purpose.
Also via X-10 hardware we can control just about anything from our PCs -- including air conditioners. The problem isn't availability, it's just that most people don't really need to control their microwave or other hosehold devices/appliances from their computer.
The new OS sounds cool, and the companies developing it are respectful and would no doubt produce a quality product, but there is much more information needed besides the media-PR blurb given in that article. I get the sense that this paper didn't have anything else to write about so it made something up, because throughout the article not one department or source is mentioned besides "industry sources". I would also think the three huge companies mentioned -- IBM, Toshiba, and Sony wouldn't work together anyway. Each one would be more than capable of developing and operating system on their own, and IMO there would be too much departmental overlay to justify cooperation with two other huge firms.
Work on the OS project has not yet begun, but the three companies have begun joint development of next-generation semiconductors that will be hundreds of times faster than current integrated chips and feature networking functions.
Yeah, and the're also working on a way to colonize Mars, too.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
don't forget the source of this info either.
The Daily Yomiuri is the Japanese equivalent of the New York Post. Big flashy stories for the masses but mostly sensationalized.
----- shoganainaa
Someone has to say it, so it might as well be me. Does the world need ANOTHER OS? Especially one that won't launch for another 3 years and will obviously be tied down to specific platforms, technologies and underlying agendas (Sony). How many different OS's can you think of off the top of your head already? And isn't IBM hard-core Linux now?
According to the article, the OS will be able to run on PCs and be accessible from your TV (for the elderly the article says) and enable tasks impossible using current technology. Like WHAT? What can a whole new OS provide that 3 years of development on the Linix kernel or some other existing OS can't? Or is this $400,000,000 to recreate the wheel?
2005: I get to use Microsoft at work, Linux on my web server, Simbian on my phone and some other random Sony OS on my television... joy.
-Russ
Man - did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or what...
Me
We shouldn't be striving for a "standard" OS in all those appliences. (Who would want to run Windows in their embedded systems anyway? Yes, Microsoft would probably succeed in making Windows the standard OS in such a case...) We should be setting standards for exchanging data between those systems instead.
TCP/IP is a good carrier of the information exchange - the global Internet has proven that. But service discovery, naming and security are issues that needs to be delt with. Hopefully, this will be developed out in the open just like the Internet protocols once were developed and not beind closed doors, patents and intelectual property lock-ins.
If they build the OS from the ground up, it may take a lot longer to hack the thing then say, a Tivo for instance. While Tivo has been cool about it, I'm sure that Sony doesn't want that to happent to them if they can help it.
While it is easy to hack into a Tivo, one of the reasons is bacause it runs a common user OS. Openness was one of the reason Tivo has had a fairly low cost to get into the market. Sony doesn't care about cost in an instance that this. I bet they were sitting around some conference room talking about how they want PC like features, but not PC like hackability. Some bright guy threw out, "well, we just make our own OS then...the way we want it." Doesn't sound too far fetched to me. Don't have to allow console access from a serial port to configure...make you own serial protocol, command structure, serial cable connections, etc, etc. It is still hackable, but not by the average geek, even with instructions. Even if you do get into to some useful interface...what then?
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
"TVs with the OS installed will be much smaller as they will not need a tuner, the sources said." :)
Heh... I worked as a TV technician for a year or so while I was out of work, tuners were 6cm x 2cm then in new TV's.... I always thought it was the tube and gun that made them so bulky...
All speling, factual, tact, and/or grametical errers be the result of netwerk interpherance or# transmition ererrs.
According to the story, Sony is going to be writing the OS. IBM and Toshiba are going to be making the chips. I believe IBM makes the cpus for the GameCube, so it would be somewhat funny to have the guts of competing game consoles come from the same factory. IBM probably doesn't care what OS Sony runs on it as long as it helps keeps their chip plants running at capacity.
I hardly ever watch TV anymore too. I'm not interested in the programs being aired and I'm busy doing other things. However, for many other people, the home entertainment center is the focal point of life inside their home. It's practically all they do after they get home from work. I have a brother and sister (both 30 or over) that you can't even talk to if they are watching TV. The TV has 100% of their attention and to have a conversation with them, you have to turn it off or physically block the view of the screen. It's like when they watch TV, they go into a trance. Adults and kids like these are the ones that Sony & Co are gunning the latest and greatest TV equipment for.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Realizing it was intended to be a joke it should be noted that several cubic centimeters can not be easily pushed into something the size of a PDA or cell phone with all the other stuff in the same package.
I'm picturing something like a portable TIVO or IPod for video with a 3inch to 7inch display.
Rod Taylor
what BeOS was all about? Doh!!
Smeghead every day of the week.
Did anybody count the number of call to arms posts on this thread? I nearly pissed myself laughing. Not only is the article not really up on details but Sony flat out denied they were working on an OS. Sounds like somebody was speaking engrish on one end of the line and got somebody else confused.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Sony themselves screwed it up by using a lame CPU and forcing it to rotate the screen at the same time.
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