PlayStation 3 to support OS X Tiger?

by James Ransom-Wiley { Aug 4th 2005 at 3:30PM }

According to a recent posting on Sony's UK website, the PS3 will support Apple's OS X Tiger operating system. It's long been rumored that the Cell processor will be able to support multiple operating systems—Linux has been tossed around in the PS3 rumor mill. As for an official Sony-Apple partnership? Well, some analysts speculated that Apple would be interested in partnering with Sony on the PS3 in order to make games that were compatible with the Mac OS X operating system. However, with Apple's planned switch to Intel processors, an official partnership is now unlikely.

[Thanks, Todd]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

oh hell no, apple is too good for sony, they will never partner with those bastards.

Tristan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

I agree. Those two corporations do possess the character attributes that you have assigned to them. All Sony employees were born with unwed parents. Those bastards. And Apple isn't just too good for Sony. They're too good for anyone.

Jim Daschle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Haha, no way. Apple will certainly end up partnering with Sony over something, but OS X will not be part of the deal.

Jim Daschle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Also, /me predicts a post saying something along the lines of OMG SHE BEZ TEH HAWT WEHUR CNA I FIND TAHT PICKSHUR!!!1

Ghazi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

yeah thats why apple is try to scoop up sony designers for the new x86 mac portables.

however, being able to run os x on ps3 would really be nice, as long as it would be free. otherwise i would prefer linux.

Joshua @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

What in the world possessed them to put that post with that picture? Apple logo and the digits "ps3" would have worked.

justforjim @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

OMG SHE BEZ TEH HAWT WEHUR CNA I FIND TAHT PICKSHUR!!!1

victor @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

#6... don't you know that all gamers are straight horny teenagers? that picture sure seems to say that.

feh...

E.V @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Hmmm...Interesting.

Microsoft goes to Apple for G5's to make 360
Sony goes to Apple for a working OS...

If Apple ever decides to go "Screw you guys, we are going solo" and release its on system, it could blow 360 and PS3 out of the watter. Down side would be the design of the unit..it would look like a giant iPOD or the usual cristal look.

Still, an Apple gaming system would be very interesting.

filthy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

#8, Apple doesn't make the G5 processor, IBM does. And considering that apple has one of the best design teams in the industry theres a pretty good chance that it would look better than the xbox 360 and the ps3. That is if there was greater than a one in 5 billion chance that apple was going to make a gaming console in the first place.

jc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

you mean another gaming system...

Maybe the time for the Pippin //c is upon us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin

mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Still, an Apple gaming system would be very interesting

---

hey I'd settle for Sony lisencing a PS2 player to Mac users.. just to annoy MS a little more...

The ps3 is waaaay too powerful for this kinda thing.. but PS2 emulators are easy..

it's just.. they've been shut down by Sony..

if they sold a legit lisence.. that would be sweet...

Michael McGuire @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Since when do processors support OS and it not be the other way around?

dalton @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

No, seriously. Where can I find that picture?

Reggie Jack @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

There was an article previously posted that said steve jobs was "unimpressed" by the cell, and decided to go strictly with intel

E.V @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

#11 Man! I had forgotten about the Pippin! Good idea, but they lost there momentum. Kind of reminds you of the Xbox eh? *evil laugh*

#10 im guessing you where refering to my post. Im sorry, you are right. I just keep connecting G5's to Apple. Bad habit of mine. Even though I think Apple could make a really sweet system, I think they are having fun by making all this other things that can be use with the new system. I think they are going " Let them battle and come up with the ultimate gaming machine. Will just sit back, relax and enjoy the revenue we get by letting them implement our producst." Which well..is a good move. It only makes sence that the 360 will connect to an Ipod, since you can buy music from the 360. Not having that option, makes that feature almost useless.

/rant

The Jeremy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

There's a better discussion going on about this on this blog's sister site at www.tuaw.com

JP @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

for all you horndogs out there, here's the site where the pic is from: http://homepage.mac.com/m_hiroshi/dp01.html. there's tons more pics and they all have hilarious captions.
definately made by some japanese guy who failed two years of high school english.

JP @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

i like this one
http://homepage.mac.com/m_hiroshi/mac/800-600pix/bath_towel800.jpg

Smoke Tetsu @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Apple likes to control both hardware and software. The PS3 doesn't come with open firmware does it? Apple would have to write drivers for the rest of the hardware in the PS3 for someone to directly run it as well. Not to mention the differences between PPC and Cell.

The only way I can MAYBE see OS X running on PS3 is with Mac on Linux. But probably not with Apple's blessings. I also don't think Apple would let them kill their market for any Mac model undercutting them with something like this.

Notice that Sony didn't say that OS X runs on PS3 just that the CPU is compaitble. That's like saying X-box has a Windows compatible CPU. Technically it does. But how many people are running XP on it? If anything this probably means that the chip it'self can run OS X if put in the appropriate hardware. That's all.

Strange things have happened but this is just hype. I'm not ready to believe this until Apple makes an announcement. Linux is a lot more likely as it runs on everything under the sun.

Lampbane @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

#6: It's an OS-tan!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan

Jim Daschle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

JP, thank you muchly.

"Like Power Mac G5, I want the high power of extendability."

http://homepage.mac.com/m_hiroshi/mac/800-600pix/pm_g5_800.jpg

epobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

You'd have to cognitively impaired to give this rumor any credence.

While the Cell design has some binary level compatibility with the PowerPC models supported by OS X, it is far, far different and for most purposes at a great disadvantage to the CPUs used in G4 and G5 model Macs. The Cell's strengths (which remain to be proven in the real world in comparison to more conventional designs of comparable cost)lie in its additional processing units, called SPEs. The bulk of OS X's operation have no use for the SPEs and those portions that could benefit are already written to use modern GPUs.

Producing a version of OS X to operate on the Cell would represent an investment of many millions and still produce a very poor performance for the OS. The Cell just isn't designed to be a desktop CPU. With apple already deeply invested in a migration to x86 processors there just isn't any business case for Apple to add Cell to their task list.

A more likely scenario would be using the Cell as a secondary processor for accelrating functions not currently handled by CPUs or GPUs as well as Cell promises to deliver. This would be similar to the specialized physics processor idea being promoted by Ageia. In this case the OS wouldn't run on Cell so much as treat it as a supported device with APIs to allow abstraction.

OtakuCODE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

Are those her tits or her ribs?

Smoke Tetsu @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM

I also kind of don't think it makes sense for Apple to ask developers to support a third platform now right after asking them to support a second. I don't think Apple would wait and be like,

"So we are transitioning to intel. But we are always thinking different so we want you to go back and rewrite your Apps for this other platform as well. PS3! Back to the drawing boards people!". Do I hear a boo, hiss from the crowd?

I think Sony UK was just throwing out examples of OS' and they used the popular ones to get people's attention.