[ydl-gen] Response of Fixstars to end of ps3 otheros

[Warren Nagourney]

Thanks, Kai, for a thoughtful response to my query. It would have been  
nice if IBM put some pressure on Sony to keep the otheros option  
available, since it would seem to be in IBM's interest to keep some  
enthusiasm for the Cell alive among the "hobbyist" community (though  
IBM never was very interested in this group as their former lukewarm  
support of the Apple culture showed).

One thought I had was the PowerStation. Is there any possibility that  
it could be made with a single Cell processor? For the current price  
of PowerStation, I would definitely buy one with a Cell and this would  
be a superb way of filling the gap left by the defunct PS3 linux  
option. It would be in any case more appropriate, since, as you  
observed, Sony is really only interested in games and for good reason.  
One wouldn't expect them to make a hobbyist computer. With an  
inexpensive  Fixstars Cell offering, the RSX problem would disappear,  
since there would be some support for a few PCI graphic boards.

Cheers,

wn

On Aug 27, 2009, at 9:12 AM, Kai Staats wrote:

> Warren, All,
>
>> I would welcome comments from PS3 users and Fixstars people on these
>> latest developments. Thanks.
>
> I wish I had answers for you, but I and my staff at Fixstars  
> Solutions have
> very little more information than do you. Yes, we too are sad to see  
> this
> unique, affordable commodity platform be removed from the market.
>
> I believe it is a decision of economics, as Linux never _made_ money  
> for Sony.
> The PS3 itself was rumored to have lost money in the first year or  
> so, and
> who knows if it makes money now? It is games, and games alone that  
> make money
> in this cut-throat game box market. So consider (from a purely  
> economic point
> of view) that each PS3 sold to run Linux, especially the clusters,  
> may never
> run a single game and therefore invoke 'break-even', at best.
>
>> From my personal point of view, black hole research
> (http://us.fixstars.com/showcase/cellebration/umass/) conducted on a  
> PS3 is
> amazing marketing. Sony could have followed IBM's standard of using
> Supercomputing success (which is rumored to lose millions of dollars  
> per
> year) to market enterprise level products. In the same respect, Sony  
> could
> have built a world-wide marketing campaign that would bury the  
> XBox360 and
> Wii --but that is not their style.
>
> They started down this path in 2006 with the Sony competency centers  
> and
> university support programs, even backing our HPC Consortium in the  
> spring
> of '07. But internal to Sony, Linux seems to have lost momentum  
> thereafter.
>
>
> Now, there appears to be good news, but the details are not yet known:
> http://www.develop-online.net/news/32378/Sony-unveils-academic-PS3-dev-kit
>
> "Sony unveils academic PS3 dev kit"
>
> Now, will this support the new slim? Seems it would have to if the  
> current 80
> and 160 models are being removed from the channel?
>
> Is this a way to continue Linux support, but on a more one-to-one  
> basis?
>
> Sincerely,
> Kai Staats, COO
> Fixstars Solutions, Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> yellowdog-general mailing list - yellowdog-general at lists.fixstars.com
> Unsuscribe info: http://lists.fixstars.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-general
> HINT: to Google archives, try  '<keywords> site:us.fixstars.com'