Sony’s Playstation 3 was just released this morning and we should have one running Yellow Dog Linux in our hands soon to give you an early review.

In the meantime there are quite a few resources where you can find hard information about the Cell processor that powers the PS3 and Linux editions built specifically for Playstation 3 hardware.

ps3topshotthmbgb4 Playstation 3 (PS3) LinuxForemost among these is Wikipedia. With it’s constantly updated nature it tends to receive frequent content refreshes. It’s a good starting point for some general information on the nature of Sony’s new system.According to the Playstation 3’s guide installing other operating systems is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. They’ve put in a menu option under Settings > System Settings > Install Other OSs that will allow you to install your own OS software on a PS3.

One of the distribution designers that will have an operating system out for the PS3 close to launch is Terra Soft Solutions. Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 for the PS3 is currently working on the Cell processors and has a projected release “two weeks after the PS3 release date” (November 30th in the US, we assume). There isn’t much infromation but what they do have is at Terra Soft’s website.

Aside from Terra Soft’s Yellow Dog, Fedora Core 5 will run on the PS3 as soon as the alternate operating install option is available. An update disk including the KBoot image needed to load FC5 (or any PPC Linux release) on the PS3 is available and can be downloaded from qj.net. There doesn’t appear to be any “official” information from the Fedora team or other distribution managers, so there’s no way of verifying that link or it’s software. Caveat Emptor.

ps320gbthmbpk3 Playstation 3 (PS3) LinuxHardware in the PS3 is a little tricky as well. At it’s core, the system features a Cell processor with 7 working cores. One of these is devoted to system security while the other six switch between tasks as necessary. Wikipedia has an overview of the cell processor detailing some of the chips high points. IBM has both a simple splash page and more technical details including an IDE plugin and guide for programming on the Cell in Eclipse.

Onboard system memory features 256MB of Rambus XDR DRAM that’s clocked to the same speed as the cores. Video ram offers up an additional 256MB of memory, this GDDR3.

Video output is handled by an nVidia NV47 (recently rechristened G70) series chipset. Both editions of the PS3 will support HDMI output.

All of that information should wet your appetite. Until we’ve had ours on the bench a couple of weeks and have Terra Softs Yellow Dog Linux running on it there’s not much more to say on the PS3 Linux front from over here. Pictures of it in operation should follow soon. -PCBurn

Referenced Links

Related: Bring on the WorkStation 3

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