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PlayStation 3 Could Support Mac OS X

Posted by Zonk on from the it-could-do-many-things dept.

ucahg writes "Sony's website has a press release stating that they will release the PS3 in 2006. The most interesting part about the page, though, is the last sentence which reads: 'The integrated Cell processor will be able to support a variety of operating systems (such as Linux or Apple's Tiger).' Is this what Steve Jobs was talking about when he said Apple and Sony looked forward to cooperating more in the future?"

5 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. there is a sony-apple partnership by matt4077 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a partnership between sony and apple regarding HD Video. Maybe that has something to do with it...

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    Fleur de Sel
  2. Web copy is never that useful. by 75th+Trombone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It sounds more like some idiot typing copy for the website didn't realize that OS X is/will always be tied to Apple hardware.

    If that IS a little revelation, it's awfully quiet and fanfare-free.

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    The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
  3. less and less anti-mac fuel by splatterboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    what are the main reasons people list as reasons they can't/will not buy a mac?

    1: No games. not if sony releases PS games for mac
    2: No multi-button mouse. weak reason but now with "mighty mouse a non-issue. Not that you couldn't go third party anyway
    3: Macs are too expensive. With the mac mini and potential price drops with soon to be intel CPUs - a shrill cry
    Looks like all the reasons to not go with mac are evaporating. I won't even mention the traditional windows problems...

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    "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
  4. Re:nice thing by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I don't even think Microsoft would try to get Vista running on the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 has the recommended amount of RAM so it wouldn't do to badly in that department, but of course there would be no way for them to upgrade the RAM. The larger, problem, however is that the Xbox 360 uses a triple core PPC processor whereas Windows Vista is designed to run on an x86 processor. In order to get Vista to run on an Xbos 360 they would need to port the code to run on a PPC processor. In addition they would need to rewrite a lot of it to make it multi-threaded because that's what the Xbox 360's processor handles best. It's not really designed to run something intensively on one thread as that limits its performance to 1/6 (each core is capable of two threads each last I heard) of performance. That would create a rather large bottleneck and probably result in a poor user experience.

    Assuming they did in fact manage to get a version of their OS to run on the Xbox 360, they'd run into the problem that eventually someone will get Linux running on the console. Considering Microsoft can't afford to sink too much money into the console in building a solid OS that runs fast, whatever they manage to port will likely be just as flawed as their regular operating systems are. Given a choice between Linux or Windows, I think that a lot of people would tend to choose Linux. Not all of them, but more than in the computer market considering there are more tech savvy people purchasing consoles.

    In short, Microsoft even trying to get Windows onto their new console is most likely going to be the biggest flop they've had in a long while.

  5. Already been considered pretty unlikely by catmistake · · Score: 4, Informative

    by macworld dude

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    The Admin and the Engineer