Rumor: new specs on the PS3 OS
by Ross Miller 
{ Apr 12th 2006 at 10:55PM }
The folks at PlayStation 3 Portal
have been gathering news from a few of their trusty (yet anonymous) sources regarding the hardware of the PlayStation 3.
The following, they claim, have been "validated by multiple sources that are involved in early PS3
development." Nothing is confirmed and Sony had definitely had time to alter these statistics, if true, but in the
meantime here is what the Portal has learned:
- A "'Blade' like pane that can appear on the right hand side of the screen" that represents the PS3's always-running OS (similar to the Xbox 360's Dashboard).
- One will be able to use voice chat "across all games, even outside of the gamers own UI."
- The OS will always utilize 1 of 7 SPEs on the Cell chip, and the option to "take" another when needed -- "games have to give it up if requested." In terms of RAM, the OS will use 18.75% of all available RAM (32mb of GDDR3 memory from the RSX chip, 64mb of the XDR memory from the Cell).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brandon @ Apr 12th 2006 11:04PM
Based on the pictures I've seen the in game interaction with the OS is very clean, not clunky and distracting. As a gamer, the primary concern I have is the User Interface. As long as its relatively easy to do things, while also being easy on the eyes, I will be happy.
Joe Smith @ Apr 12th 2006 11:06PM
So they will take nearly 20% of the RAM and 1/7th of the SPE's (source of all the BS hyped up performance numbers Sony throws around) from the developer -- with an option to take another 1/7th at will -- which means the developer can't count on it? Wow, that better be one hell of a great persistant OS they are running. Sounds to me like a machine that was marginally more powerful than an Xbox 360 -- if at all-- just got considerably less so in terms of available horsepower for the game.
Eric @ Apr 12th 2006 11:15PM
"Fortunately, it seems the PlayStation 3 should be more than powerful enough to run both the OS and a game simultaneously."
It's nice to hear a postitive spin on otherwise discouraging news. Using upwards of 23% of the system's available power to video chat while playing does not sound like a good idea at all. UNLESS of course the developers have been aware of this all along and have compensated for that already. Which does not sound like a likely scenario because developers were just informed of the specifics of what Sony's online service would offer....
The only way this can be good is if they purposely over estimated how much of the systems resources would be required to run the OS in the background for the "just in case we need it all" factor. Then, if they find that it actually requires substantially less, they can scale back to whatever they need.
A quarter of the systems power is a lot! I don't want choppy frame rates and lowered textures and a game that chugs along while some noob screams that I am a hack for "pwning" him...
Bob @ Apr 12th 2006 11:15PM
Hmm, this "blade" system sounds familiar. Hey, wait, this entire online serive sounds familiar. Oh, that's right, Microsoft did it first.
Watch this, though. Once they realize the PS3 is not as powerful a GAMING machine as the Xbox 360, Sony fanboys will begin talking about the ripped-off OS instead of the underwhelming general processing power.
What a bunch of tools! lol bi
Ross Miller @ Apr 12th 2006 11:17PM
Keep in mind the Xbox 360 also has the same issues with an constant OS in the background (Dashboard), so they are suffering from the same processor issues.
That said, there was a post in this spot by Donald, but was deleted because it contributed absolutely nothing to the post and misread comment #2, which is more or less complete and utter sarcasm.
Brandon @ Apr 12th 2006 11:21PM
UMM... #2 AND #4
Read a book, take some medication for your Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and calm the hell down!
I think it is incredibly funny when fanboys call others fanboys without seeing that they are also one themselves. But anyway, lets try just for once to not let this turn into a SONY/Microsoft/Nintendo pissing match, but im pretty sure that many are already feverishly typing to make it just that.
Brandon @ Apr 12th 2006 11:22PM
Disregard the numbers in my post. sorry :-S
Ross Miller @ Apr 12th 2006 11:27PM
I got fooled -- the PS3 and Xbox 360 fan boy were the same person ... basically the guy was trying to start a fight with his other personalities in the comment lines. Both comments are now deleted.
Fan @ Apr 12th 2006 11:31PM
Reading PS3 news on joystiq is such a waste of time. Instead of discussing the news, PS3 posts are flooded with redundant and ignorant comments from people who are so caught up in console waring its annoying.
PS3fanboy is even worse, every post starts off with something like "ps3 sux xbox rox".
FFS people if you hate Sony so much go write your congressman or something. Just quit bitching. You come off as nothing more than marketing tools.
rufus359 @ Apr 12th 2006 11:36PM
Anyone else tired of all the specs crap? I'd like to see something concrete and maybe some decent information on the damn thing. I think all of the speculation is hurting Sony's chances of even putting up a good fight with this round of consoles.
32_Footsteps @ Apr 12th 2006 11:39PM
You know, the idea that the console's OS can take over 1/7 of the resources from a game bothers me alot. The OS should exist just enough so that the game runs and not an ounce more. When an OS becomes more important than the game, I question the console's dedication to what it should be focusing on: delivering the best gaming experience possible.
Sam @ Apr 12th 2006 11:45PM
What we see here is that the 360 and the ps3 are basically running on similar chipsets with similar a similar os and concept. This means that the only thing that will matter is software. So all the talk of processor speed and megs and whatever other hardware aspects one wishes to discuss, do not matter. In the end, the only thing that matters is the software the games. Let's hope that this competition will be so fierce that it forces both of these companies to innovate rather than duplicate the same games with slightly better features.
PTK @ Apr 12th 2006 11:46PM
YES thats all fine and dandy, judgment day is comming for sony (& dev's) to show & tell.
Im a sony "fanboy" so to speak but im very concerned about the gameplay associated with the games.
i have not seen anything "NextGen" worthy on Xbox360 yet so will keep waiting & hoping for sony.
1 thing i expect from developers is all racing games with an option for *2player NO SPLIT SCREEN* 2 TV's, 1 each every game, 1 must be a HDTV but Bring It On Sony.
Einhanderkiller @ Apr 12th 2006 11:48PM
Well, #11, Sony said that the PS3 is a "computer entertainment system", not just a "game console".
Carlton @ Apr 12th 2006 11:58PM
Crap and more Crap
Man I can't wait for E3, I hope they have working games!
No more Movies I'm sick of them. At this point I'm almost pulling for nintendo!
Arch Duke Ferdinand @ Apr 12th 2006 11:58PM
well number 13, all games on the xbox 360 are next gen by definition, as will all games released on the PS3.
Now if you or any one else think these games are not as impressive as they should be graphically for "next gen" status that's an entirely different story, but one entirely irrelevant to a console's generation
Ian @ Apr 13th 2006 12:11AM
Cool, a complete rip of the 360, real original.....
TeaTom @ Apr 13th 2006 12:20AM
Noooo, having explorer running in the background on my PC sucks so much power when I'm running games that I use a shell to replace it.
Although I'm sure it wont noticeably effect any PS3 games performance per se, I do think this sounds a little restrictive for game devs.
Eric @ Apr 13th 2006 12:21AM
#13...
I'm not sure what you and others like you mean when you say that you "haven't seen anything next-gen on the 360 (or vids showing off PS3 games)"....just what the hell do you expect exactly??
Consoles are generally 3-4 hundred dollar machines...Do you expect to play the games from these systems and forget that you are playing a game???
If the visuals aren't impressive enough for you, then why the hell don't you have a $10,000 Dell?
As #16 said, technically the 360 is next gen no matter what the level of visuals it puts out...By comparison, the Revolution will seemingly be putting out current gen visuals but the Rev is slated to compete in...the next gen.
If you haven't been impressed by anything up to this point, then either you have a super computer dedicated to gaming, or you haven't been paying attention.
dsub @ Apr 13th 2006 12:29AM
I own a 360, and sometimes I too wish that the OS wasn't constantly running. When you are in mid-game and you hit the XBOX guide button, in some games you can definately tell the system losing resources to launch the guide and bring up the OS. Once it is gone all goes back to normal though. Another thing is that when you do bring up the guide, in most games it automatically pauses the game, seeing as how you cannot be playing a game and browsing the new downloads at the sametime, the idea of the OS taking away from the games power really is never an issue.
I don't know if the OS on the 360 is constantly taking up RAM or using one of the 6 available threads on the processor, but this situation sounds very similar to the PS3. Before I draw conclusions though, I'd like to see how much RAM/CPU power the 360 dashboard draws while idle/in game. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't as much. Due to MS's experience in creating OS's and software I could see them being able to design a more efficient OS that didn't suck up a bunch of resources.
32_Footsteps @ Apr 13th 2006 12:54AM
"Computer entertainment system" is a pretentious way of saying "game console." You might as well just own up to it and call a spade a spade.
dsub @ Apr 13th 2006 1:03AM
I agree with 32_footsteps. The NES stood for "Nintendo Entertainment System" and was originally marketed as a "Family Entertainment System". It was nothing but a game console. "Computer Entertainment System" is nothing but the Politcally Correct term for game console, just as "Vertically Challenged" means Short.
epobirs @ Apr 13th 2006 1:05AM
This is rather dismaying, if true. Sony has for many years wanted to compete in the PC business with a machine they truly owned, rather than producing Intel/AMD boxes with a Windows OS. Recall the AOL/Netscape demos on the PS2 that appeared at E3 one year and were then swept under the carpet, never to be mentioned again?
Barring some credible explanation from Sony, devs are being made to work in service to functions that have little bearing on their projects but make for a kind of toll to further Sony's ambitions. Is so, this raises the question of why developers shouldn't just do PC games instead where they pay no royalties in exchange for greater variability.
A fine ambition but in the process are they making the PS3 less of a console in hopes of appealing to the PC audience hoping for something like the Amiga with a more robust OS. (The Amiga got a pretty good OS eventually but only after its market had shrunk to Video Toaster users and some die hards.)
Since the machine has a mandatory 60 GB or greater hard drive, why should the OS occupy so much RAM? What services could it be providing that cannot be quickly loaded from the drive as needed? For a comparison, the original Xbox only gave up about a megabyte of RAM for the OS kernel hosting the entire DirectX API suite. If a game didn't use some APIs, say it lacked online support, that code was easily left out at compile time to free up more RAM. The Xbox Live code could occupy varying amounts of RAM for different feature sets but that got loaded when it was needed. All but a stub could be freed up for gameplay code/data.
When the Xbox was new, many considered that use of less than 1/64th of RAM a major imposition on programmers access to the hardware! Those critics usually failed to consider the value of what the DirectX suite provided compared to developers investing the time, effort, and RAM to replicate those functions on their own.
I'd really like to know whether all of this resources use is directly applicable to game developers or if only a fraction of it is concerned with games at all. (Some stats on the demands of the Xbox 360 OS and services would be useful for comparison's sake.) At a casual reading it appears developers are getting a good chunk less machine than they were originally led to believe was at their disposal. (Excepting those who've long been under NDA.)
Dan @ Apr 13th 2006 1:13AM
#13- You haven't seen anything "truly next-gen" on the 360? Too bad. Check out Fight Night 3 and GRAW, both of these games are pretty amazing graphically and in terms of game play, especially GRAW.
iceatcs @ Apr 13th 2006 1:20AM
"When you are in mid-game and you hit the XBOX guide button, in some games you can definately tell the system losing resources to launch the guide and bring up the OS."
Yeah I got little same thing, but realise it is Microsoft where they are very poor to keep bug free OS, for example Windows ME or XP esp. the infamous "Blue screen of Hell"... Also they never were doing very well in programming. Microsoft might need to re-team the whole programmers.
I'm sure Linux is much better, but not sure for multimedia but it seems doing very well on PS2 and PSP.
jaemz @ Apr 13th 2006 1:28AM
I suspect a good percentage of this background resource usage has to do with DRM, BluRay control and overall piracy controlls. A *nix shell by itself could run in well under half that.
I'm not saying that you are running a 24/7 rootkit machine (not trying to start a paranoia outbreak), but I would bet money that Sony is running controls on every process.
Pretty Obvious @ Apr 13th 2006 1:29AM
"When you are in mid-game and you hit the XBOX guide button, in some games you can definately tell the system losing resources to launch the guide and bring up the OS."
When you pull the guide menu up in the middle of gameplay, your not exactly playing the game at the time your in the menu. So who the hell cares if your losing system recources. When you put the guide away your back to normal. Your really nitpicking at this point.
neale @ Apr 13th 2006 1:55AM
22: hd dvd and blu-ray are both simply for movies. sony are pushing blu-ray for movies(priority) then for games.
and the guy who hasnt seen next gen on the 360. pretty much the ps3 will be worse at launch (compared to the 360 in november), so i dunno what your expecting. the games to play for you?
the way i see it, we've been stuck in the same gen for 2(ms)/3(sony) consoles because the graphics just get better and better. 2D to 3D was a gen step. id say xbox live was another step into a next gen, and now the revmote is the next step. simply because they were/will be so radically different
come on sony, "spring 06 release" and all we've seen are those pics from GDC. cut the bullshit figures and show us the goods. (although e3 is soon, we better see a lot)
Darth Pixel @ Apr 13th 2006 2:08AM
Does anyone actually believe the Windows CE kernel (within the 360) does not consume any resources?
Wow!
If it's anything like other Windows kernels, it may well consume 33% of system resources.
lekko @ Apr 13th 2006 2:08AM
A few things to correct/point out to you.
1) The idea of a persistant OS on a game console came before the 360 on the PSP. There are probably others, but PSP readily comes to mind.
2) The thought of the OS taking up 1/7th of the machine's total power or whatever %. Keep in mind that the features provided by the OS might be part of the game itself. Sony is going to have a more central and consistent online service. The OS will probably deal with the online side of things for free, as well as other features.
Nushio @ Apr 13th 2006 2:27AM
Neale (#28)
"and the guy who hasnt seen next gen on the 360. pretty much the ps3 will be worse at launch (compared to the 360 in november), so i dunno what your expecting. the games to play for you?"
In Soviet Russia, games play YOU!!!
That said, I'll be glad to give up a core or two for a great OS similar to the dashboard on the 360. I really dont expect games to use all 7 cores in the first 4 years of the PS3 Lifespan.
Extinction @ Apr 13th 2006 2:31AM
Complete rip off of XBOX360? Um, PSP has an OS that runs in the background, takes 5 megs of RAM. Came out before the 360
epobirs @ Apr 13th 2006 3:10AM
#29
The Xbox 360 kernel is not WinCE derived. It is based on the code base for the Win2K/XP kernel. The need for thread management alone makes it far better suited than WinCE for the job.
You apparently aren't familiar with how embedded Windows works in the Wince or PC incarnations. The tools give developers a lot of freedom to customize what goes into a build. On the original Xbox the Win2K-based kernel and entire DirectX suite took less than a megabyte of RAM. Things that had no useful purpose on a game console simply aren't there. It's easy to make a reliable embedded version of a desktop OS when you've reduced it to an extremely targeted sliver of itself. A common example is printing. It has no place in most console use. If an Xbox printer were to appear it would have to include all of the required functionality in software modules for use by applications supporting it. An app that only produced plain text or simple screen dumps would need far less code than something intended to issue full printer resolution color images with an array of scaled fonts.
Developing for a dedicated platform that has little or no variations across its installed base makes things hugely less complicated than doing an full featured PC OS. The levels of abstraction needed to make modern PC features work are resource hungry but very necessary. A big chunk of DirectX code that assesses the machine environment and offers software fallbacks for missing hardware features isn't an issue for something like the Xbox. The chipset is exactly the same for each machine. That simplifies things a lot and allows much tighter resource requirements.
Of course WinCE consumes resources. But those places where it is used are those where the payoff is greater than the cost. On the Dreamcast it drastically reduced the cost of porting games from the PC. And because it was loaded with the game rather than being permanently in flash ROM on the console, a developer only needed to include those portions pertinent to the game in question.
Things would be very similar on the PS3. This is a dedicated platform with very specific hardware. With that in mind the resource usage is pretty high and continuously invites the question of what all is being supported beyond games.
R @ Apr 13th 2006 3:20AM
Some questions:
1. Will Nintendo's next console still be 'severely underpowered' if it's not running a perpetual OS or outputing HD graphics?
2. Knowing what we know about Sony's fear of piracy and desire to spy on consumers, does anyone believe those high specs for the OS are all utilised for benign purposes?
3. What is the real (i.e. GAMING) power of the next-gen when you take away the spec cost of the OS?
Jdoki @ Apr 13th 2006 4:02AM
#35 - Good comments well made!
Surely no one here is claiming that when they are playing MGS4 they'll be thinking 'Sony sux, this game could have had access to 1 more SPE'
Or any frame rate issues could have been alleviated by the use of one more core.
As many previous posters have said... the OS will very likely provide extra functionality that removes some burden from the devlopers. What's the point of a dev having to include the functions and calls for voice chat or online gameplay when those elements can sit in the OS. They would use the same resources anyway.
Only time will tell which next gen console will be the most successful, but whichever wins I doubt it'll be down to which had the better OS.
Lets wait and see which has the games that are the most FUN to play and stop worrying about which one has the highest specs.
Shamster @ Apr 13th 2006 6:20AM
I agree with you #37.
When you are playing a game, you are not going to be complaining unless the game experience is inconsistent with choppy framerates, etc.
From my sources, I know that the whole OS running in the background was added to ease the developers' burden. Even though, the first XBox had XBox Live, it was a pain for developers to hook up all the features for Live. That's the reason we ended up seeing most games being Live aware (not fully Live compatible). The games that went the whole nine yards of really using Live were the ones published by Microsoft. This time around, with the OS taking care of most of the painful stuff for Live, making a live compatible game is a lot easier. SONY has an easier task considering that Microsoft has already proved the model. All they need to do is to pick out the things that worked best and implement those.
BTW, the reason SONY requires games to give up 1 SPU at any time is because the PS3 is planned to double up as a DVR. If you happen to be playing a game when your show comes on, the PS3 needs to be able to record in the background. Encoding in realtime is CPU hungry and the SPUs are better suited for that job. Regardless, recording will affect more like the IO system, etc and I would be interested in knowing restrictions for that.
Sam @ Apr 13th 2006 6:28AM
Although this news may have you thinking that the ps3 is going to be a massive failure, it wont have any effect whatsoever. the 40 or so people who made comments about the OS leeching off the core etc make up such a small demographic sony/ms/nintendo couldnt give a shit what you think. They know that the majority of their sales are going to the people who buy on brand name alone.
If you asked anyone in my school what next gen console they are going to buy/bought about 20% will say 360 and will be able to tell you something specific about it as they are seen as "fanboys". Another 10% would answer revolution and would be able to tell you about the revmote and features etc the other 70% would say ps3 and wouldnt be able to tell you jackshit because they all go the ps1/2 for christmas and carry on buying sony.
Thats why sony are lazy with OS usage. Because they know it wont matter one little bit
fraggle_rocker @ Apr 13th 2006 7:06AM
microsoft making a more efficiant os than linux? lol, emmm yeah ok.... If you see the specs just needed to run xp or vista? lol
Its all relative. The os handling voice chat and other features across each game would mean that the game developers dont have to build it into each game, Which they would have to anyway. Meaning that they save resources for their game. Do you think voice chat inside a game takes up no resources?
The fact it can take up to 7.5% more on demand probably means when you launch an internet browser from inside a game, or hit a record button, or hit eyetoy, Something you ask the os to do, I cant see it randomnly asking for more power.
The game will probably be ready for you to do such stuff. Have eyetoy support, voice support, browser support. Probably pause for some stuff.
All in all this doesnt give microsoft or sony an edge. Ps3 is the most powerful in my opinion, and they will both be using roughly the same on their operating system, meaning the ps3 will still be more powerfull.
I dont see what all the hull a bullulah is about :-S
jay @ Apr 13th 2006 7:49AM
I hope, though the 'home' button argues against this, that the Rev has no OS. I don't want a bleedin computer. I don't want the sort of thing the 360 provides IN a game. I don't mind that at the start. But never ingame. I'd prefer it if the developers included software into individual games, like rather than flipping to the 360 menu to play music, the character would put a walkman on and you can choose the songs there. To keep a more unique feel to each game.
I don't want another PC or Mac. I don't want an OS running in the background. I don't like it on my 360 and I was perfectly content without one before.
neale @ Apr 13th 2006 8:33AM
via 360 fanboy:
"In the case of the Xbox360, this cost is approximately 2% of total CPU time and 6.25% of the Xbox360's total available RAM. Balancing these out, one could argue that MS has removed a total of 4% of the Xbox360's total available system power in order to provide these features and more which were not mentioned. "
BruteRules @ Apr 13th 2006 9:15AM
You guys are all missing the point. PS3 running Linux. Anyone say 100 million install base of Linux. Third Party developers start writing code for Linux. MS has a competitor on more than one front. That is why MS got in the colsole market in the first place. Sony started trying to sell the PS2 as a multi function device and MS took note!!!
rog27 @ Apr 13th 2006 9:37AM
Directed at Ross Miller:
Please note that these rumors you are hearing are partially correct. The numbers are for the "work-in-progress" OS and do not represent the final product that will ship in the console. These very vague guidelines are given to developers to work with initially, and then are ammended as the OS is streamlined and optomized. Because the OS will either be stored in firmware or on the HDD (uknown at this time), it can be updated in subsequent iterations and will be streamlined further (or made larger to add even more functionality) even if this memory footprint is brought to fruition in the launch of the intial batch of PS3s.
striderhayasa @ Apr 13th 2006 9:47AM
@42, True MS did take note but some of these comments and announements by sony worry me. Sony has not made one console that has been generally stable since they entered the console market. The PS1, and the PS2 constantly suffered from heat and laser alignment issues. Now I'm supposed to be excited about a PS3 that is going to have not 1 but 2 new pieces of technology in it? The Cell is unproven until we can see what it does in a real time, consumer level environment and the need for blu-ray is still questionable at best. I still remember when Sony said that the cell would top 4GHz. Intel laughed at them. THEY couldn't get the Pentium to clock over 4ghz without it melting into poo. Sony is going to come on the CPu scene after five minutes and make such an announcement? It's suspect. Now look at the Cell...it clocks at the same 3GHZ level as the 360. Why? Because Sony is talking out of both sides of their face. I'll believe in the PS3 when Sony can get it on the market without it melting, burning out or eating someone's baby.
mariofan14 @ Apr 13th 2006 9:56AM
Whats the big deal? We all knew that the PS3 would be a little more powerful than the 360(weather it would be noticeable in the games is up to debate though), so as I see it all this is doing is evening the playing field a little. Both systems are going to have similar graphics, games and online services, so why argue it. The only real variable left in this debate is the Blu-ray factor.
BTW, is the PS3 really going to be a DVR?
Kamalot @ Apr 13th 2006 10:07AM
I remember reading that Cell processors could still be shipped and used in PS3s if up to 2 of the SPEs were bad. Can anyone else recall this?
Kamalot @ Apr 13th 2006 10:15AM
It is true that this won't affect your gameplay, but it will reduce the amount of total power available to games. We've been promised so much power from the PS3, and PS3 fangirls use that list of specs to rave about how much better the games will be compared to the 360.
Turns out that some of the power (close to 25%) isn't available for the games at all but is used to copy features of the 360.
I don't know how anyone can spin this as a good story.
Kamalot @ Apr 13th 2006 10:18AM
Oh, here's the article about having faulty SPEs in the Cell processor.
http://www.ps3focus.com/archives/45
rog27 @ Apr 13th 2006 10:52AM
#46 everything is relative...Almost half of one core's resources are used on the OS in the Xbox 360...that's 1/6 of the cpu's resourses. Plus another half of one core's resourses are used just in decompression schemes for streaming compressed data off of those small capacity dvds the Xbox360 has. In reality, only 2 cores of the Xbox360 are used for gamecode, ai, physics, sound processing, etc. Only 2/3 of the cpu's resources are available for the game in the end.
In comparison less than 1/7 of the Cell's resources are allocated for the OS. The Bluray discs high-capacity and data redundancy lowers the need for compressed data to reside on the disc to be later decompressed by the cpu, keeping data decompression very low and system resources allocated to that task extremely miniscule as well. At this time, the OS for PS3 is a work-in-progress and it's memory footprint is unoptomized. As the OS nears completion, it may very well be much more streamlined. Future iterations of the OS may even have a smaller memory footprint than the OS PS3 initially ships with.
Everyone must remember that OS data many times in transient, meaning that it is only partly active most of the time and may reside as a background process using considerably less resources than when fully active and simultaneously sharing those said resources with the game.
nemi @ Apr 13th 2006 11:11AM
The 1 SPE for OS is great. that means the more general purpose PowerPC core is kept as free as posible for game use.
the additional usage of a 2nd SPE is very canny on Sonys part - can no-one see what this all means
A permanently running OS. The claiming of a 2nd SPE when required.
Why my Dear Watson - it is for when the PS3 has to DVR or compress media while you are playing game...
As to "stealing" resources form a game...
.. 5 SPE's vs. 7 SPE's is not a huge drop. These guys are used for vector operations and media operations. This will just effect overall frame rate.
But so does selecting 480p, 1080i, 720p, 1080p, wide screen , 4:3 ratio screen, leve3l of AA, level of AF . 5.1 surround sound. stereo sound and how much "Stuff" is on screen at once.
The user is given a sub-set of these options when running a PS2 game. It will be the same with the PS3. And I sure the Ps3 OS will have an option to "not claim 2nd SPE when playing games" and you can just miss your episode of 24 or Pop idol, or slow down the download of your next online game or movie to the local HD.
Any well written, multi-threaded, program will be coded to NOT make assumptions about the number of physical SPE's avliable.
Darth Pixel @ Apr 13th 2006 11:14AM
Yes, I confirm this. The 360 OS is not based on Windows CE. It is derived from the Xbox OS, which was derived from Windows 2000.
And I am fully aware of how configurable Windows CE is. It's clearly modularized.
The Linux kernel has the same capacity. You can build your kernel as you wish, with the strict minimum or with any feature of your choice.
I still think it is foolish to believe the Xbox 360 OS consumes less resources than a stripped down version of the Linux kernel.
This being said, epobirs, I will not do what you did and cry wolf without knowing both side of the story.
Indeed, without knowing the overhead imposed by the 360 OS, it's hard to tell if 19% is "a lot".