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Building a Linux XBOX Cluster

Posted by samzenpus on from the imagine-a-xbox-cluster dept.

Hack Jandy writes "Getting Linux to work on an XBOX became relatively easy a few years ago, and building an XBOX render farm became the next logical solution. Anandtech bought 8 XBOXes and clustered them into a neat project any hardware hacker could appreciate. Check out the results as Anand pits his 8-way cluster against some Xeon and Opteron workstations as well."

7 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Printer-friendly version by TCM · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here.

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  2. playstation 2 cluster by frankmu · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/cluster.php

    i think this was on slashdot a few years ago.

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  3. Already Done? by mmmjoy · · Score: 3, Informative

    wasnt this done last year??

    here?

  4. Re:Mod chips? by stratjakt · · Score: 4, Informative

    An XBox mod chip is essentially just replacing the BIOS with another one.

    So the hardware itself is just commodity parts. Even if some crazy US law says you cant sell it for the "intent" of piracy, you can get the parts legally at the local electronics shop. Kind of like smart card readers are perfectly legal - unless you use them to pirate satellite, then DirecTV drops "da hammer".

    Microsoft hasnt really raised a stink about it and has pretty much left the modding scene alone.

    Of course, the BIOS image you use may or may not be illegal. It'll either be a XBox bios hacked to play warezed games (illegal, copyright MS code), but theres the Cromwell bios, a GPLed replacement to boot linux up (legal). Chips either ship blank or with Cromwell.

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  5. Why pay for a modchip? by mprinkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are very stable software-only hacks to get a hacked BIOS installed. The best one is called UDE. I uses a buffer overflow in the font handling calls of the Xbox dashboard (actually a replacement dashboard). Then it installs its own BIOS and runs its own software.

    Here is the skinny. I use this to launch XBMC and turn the xbox (w/ remote) into a very nice media center for every tv in my house. Plus, it plays games.

  6. Re:factor in the GPU by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except that the Xbox GPU can't do floating point. It's a DX8(Pixel Shader 1.x) class GPU, so it's limited to short pixel shaders in the 32bit(RGBA) integer space. Future consoles will no doubt be able to make use of the GPU like you anticipate, but the GPUs in current consoles predate the modern technology needed.

  7. Re:Question about a reverse X-BOX hack by dosius · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. That's how that one XBOX emulator works, CXBX.

    2. Yes, I have heard of it, can't recall the name of the group producing them.

    Moll.

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