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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.'"
Wonderful. I could watch the cheese in the fridge grow mold on the TV, or even put it on the web. Beats Survivor, anyway.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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.
exchange huge volumes of data, including the high-resolution graphics of a television screen
So, the product is already vaporware?
Why bother.
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
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)
"TVs with the OS installed will be much smaller as they will not need a tuner, the sources said."
And we all know how huge TV-tuner-modules are.
At least several cubic centimeters !
Strangely this ties in well with the comments I made (1, 2) on the X Box sequel story The possibility of abuse of any technology has to be watched. This story on the Whitdot website reveals one aspect of business leaders trying to use technology to their advantadge.
There are many advantadges to this technology, but there is the flip side of this.
For example, the X-Box sequel fits nicely into this kind of setup. And obviously MS wants to be in this market. Do you trust Microsoft?
Actually, it is more a matter of the advatadges of the technology vs your trust or lack of trust for the big corporations. Which gets us into the whole Anti Globalist thing. I am not so sure of that as well. It spins out of control into a flame war of the evils of technology vs the evils of no technology really fast.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
At least the PAL system (mostly used in Europe), it's 768x576.
Ok, 3-4 years(depending on when in 2005 it's released) of development for a new OS. But what is it going to provide...
Current OSs can transfer large amounts of data, it's the broadband connections that are lagging behind... My P-90 can easily handle the 128Kb/s uplink my DSL provides... And the number of people paying for Broadband is not increasing at the rate everyone expected... The research needs to be how to get faster broadband at a cheaper price.
Even though this looks like open source, they have worded it carefully: 'to other companies', doesn't say 'free' so it could be available to other companies at a price that no individuals could afford it.
Doubtful Sony would allow something like that, without charging a arm-and-leg for it...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
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
well, first of all, they seem to be hiding something that the story is not telling us. all the things that they say an OS can do, so can linux and windows and just about every other mature OS on the market today.
if they were developing a new OS, they need to do one thing: the thing that makes the Palm different from the Newton: all data is integrated into the OS, making it very easy to communicate between different programs. that is what most OSs lack. it is very difficult to make programs communicate with each other, except maybe with FIFO files that take up extra space. it is not really possible for one program to write in the memory of another. sure that is 3V1L for desktop and server OSs b/c they are VERY vulnerable, but its perfect for an OS that is supposed to communicate with appliances.
Now, if you have been thinking to mod me down because I did not mention grep on unix..wait right there! grep is a great tool, but it still has its extents. you cannot do everything with grep. programs can use each other's data (making it very useful for doing complicated tasks via simple programs) but they cannot in the full sense of the word intercommunicate. most importantly, grep is essentially a one way connection.
QED
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
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.
... but only in Japanese for now (see http://www.ps2linux.com/)
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
"When Sony and IBM get together it means nothing but trouble"..
Careful, you might upset YRO readers. Times are tough -- and theres only so much tinfoil to go around, you know.
Bowie J. Poag
The only good thing to come out of Microsoft as a monopoly is that many devices follow their "standard". Yes, it is true that Microsoft ignores industry standards, but at least they create a conformity that allows many devices to work together without too much of a problem.
Look at the cell phone market in the United States and you will see what a hinderance lack of standards can be. The US is very far behind in cell phone techonology with regards to many other nations, and mostly because of big companies each willing to push their own proprietary technology because they believe they will be profiting more in the long run.
Well, back to the new OS, what's gonna happen here? The description of services offered, control their home appliances via PC, and watch television programs and movies on their PC at any location , sound great, but how are Microsoft and even Apple gonna react to this? They obviously both want a piece of that market share and I'm not sure if they are all willing to conform to each others standards.
Ideally, every company would be small and would have to follow industry standards. These standards would be imposed by a legislation with representation from all the developers. Instead what we get is a couple people fighting like babies over who will dictate the future standard. No one wins, and technology gets screwed.
There have been a number of fairly spectacular failures in this arena. Consider, for example:
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.
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
Sony sells a heck of a lot more TVs than playstations. Perhaps this new OS is aimed at the much more ubiqitious TV market. Combine that with IBM's support of CPRM. Welcome to pay-per-veiw tivo work-alike. Shure would make the MPAA Happy.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
I don't know how many times when hauling my VCD, DVD, consoles, etc around that I've wished they could just jack into the local WiFi network and then the tv could pick the feed it wanted to receive by checking a 'Network Neighborhood' type of thing that looked just like picking a channel. You can send video over a WiFi network without any problems so all you need is a tv smart enough to receive it.
:)
:)
Then to be even better they cold make the power cords optional so you could go 'unjacked' for a while and then just plug the system back in later to play/charge. The PS1 already has battery packs so why not DVD players and newer consoles.
Not sure why they need a new OS for it. A simple protocol that agrees on the type of video stream and a way to communicate available channels should work. You could even offer encryption of streams if you wanted to make sure your kids couldn't see the porn your watching. Screw the $400 million. Someone hire me for a year and I'll develop it myself using Linux and standard embedded components.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
"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.
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.
I don't believe I claimed that. I was responding to the claim "The PS2 does not run any form of Linux.", which had somehow got a +3 informative (!) rating ...
What is interesting is that the Linux kit supports all the major devices on the PS2 - including the vector units (see http://www.ps2linux.com/dmesg.html :-) There's essentially no reason why you couldn't run a game under PS2 linux...
Physicists get Hadrons!
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.