Installing Yellow Dog Linux on the PS3

Posted by Zonk on Thursday January 4, 2007 @08:05AM from the puppy-for-playstation dept.

johnnyb writes "A new series of articles is out on IBM DeveloperWorks on programming the PS3. The first article is up, discussing the installation of Yellow Dog Linux and first steps in programming the Cell BE Processor on this platform. From the article: ' It is unusual for gaming consoles to allow foreign operating systems to be installed on them. Since consoles are usually sold at a loss, they are usually locked down to prevent games from running on them without the publisher paying royalties to the console developer. Sony decided to open up the PS3 console a little bit, and allow third-party operating systems to be installed, with the caveat that they do not get accelerated graphics. Because of this, you can now install Linux on the PS3. You have to jump through a few hoops, but it definitely works.'"

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Re:Question... by johnnyb · 2007-01-04 09:00 · Score: 3, Insightful

This is actually the cheapest (by far) way to get access to IBM's new Cell BE processor. It also doesn't trash the gameplaying aspect of the PS3 -- PS3s actually come with dual-boot capability built-in.

So, if you're interested in learning to program IBM's new chip design, this is the best way to do it. It not only has a dual-core PowerPC element, but eight independent vector processors attached, with a radical new architecture (because of manufacturing decisions by Sony as well as implementation decisions, you may have access to as few as 6, but in any case, there's lots of processing elements in there).

Then there is always the Geek factor, which can never be underestimated.

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Engineering and the Ultimate