https://www.psx-place.com/threads/update-june-27th-20-hw-acceleration-rsx-project-update-by-renerebetm.21370/page-9

Yes, development of Linux PS3 support has been picked up (again) recently. Sure, it got an impressive CPU & GPU combo but it still only got 256 MiB system RAM and the GPU is an NVIDIA one (klick). IMHO not exactly the best prerequisites for porting MorphOS to it.

Where would one get a working PS3 these days? Museum?

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Probably, Just the display case next beside the iMac G5 (IIRC both are from ~2005).

MorphOS could be ported to the latest consumer PPC machine - WiiU but its cpu isn't faster than G5.

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Interesting thought! I had not paid attention to the Wii U being PPC. Also it comes with 2 GiB DDR3 RAM and an AMD GPU. Can't find any reference if it got Altivec/VMX. Probably not as it seems to be PPC750 based.

Xenon, the Xbox 360s CPU would be more powerful with it's 3-core (+ SMT) 3,2 GHz + VMX. The downside is the Xbox360 having only 512 MiB RAM...

> Where would one get a working PS3 these days? Museum?

The PS3 can still be bought new, even the original, OtherOS-compatible version:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B000WV0WZK
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B001QTXCAY
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B001RTS532

(These are just a few units total, but this means that the MorphOS team as well as everyone who'd want to run MorphOS on a PS3 could get one ;-)

Can the same be said about PPC Macs?

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On PS3, you can use VRAM and virtual memory on a SSD SATA 150 MB/s
https://github.com/intel/edison-linux/blob/master/drivers/block/ps3vram.c

Using VRAM would be very useful for EFIKA, moreove reading from VRAM on EFIKA is faster than read from IDE that would be great, but unfortunately this is not possible under MorphOS.

My EFIKA has 128 MB RAM and IDE ~6,3 MB/s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJMm-Toi6Hc

EFIKA:> cpu
System: bplan,EFIKA5K2
Machine: 0x1
PageSize: 4096 Bytes
CPUCount: 1
CPU0: 5200LE (G2) Version 32898 Revision 8212
CPU0: CPUClock 396000000 BusClock 132000000
CPU0: FPU Unit exists
CPU0: ReservationSize 4
CPU0: Ticks 4
CPU0: CacheL1Type 0x0
CPU0: CacheL1Flags 0x1000F
CPU0: ICacheL1Size 16384
CPU0: ICacheL1Lines 512
CPU0: ICacheL1LineSize 32
CPU0: DCacheL1Size 16384
CPU0: DCacheL1Lines 512
CPU0: DCacheL1LineSize 32

EFIKA:> drivespeed ide.device 0
Drive information:
Type: DISK
Manufacturer Name: ATA-HD
Drive Name: ST96812A
Drive Revision:
Raw read: 6368780 bytes/sec

> I had not paid attention to the Wii U being PPC. [...] Can't find any reference
> if it got Altivec/VMX. Probably not as it seems to be PPC750 based.

Yes, see the large quote in comment #110 :-)

> Xenon, the Xbox 360s CPU would be more powerful with it's 3-core (+ SMT)
> 3,2 GHz + VMX. The downside is the Xbox360 having only 512 MiB RAM...

...and the CPU cores just doing in-order execution, so you can't really do a simple comparison with out-of-order Espresso based on clock frequency.

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Good thing for Linux! But the link you posted states this VRAM is only used as MTD block device. So it can't be used to increase main RAM. It's simply some sort of RAM disk.
Still the PS3 got an Nvidia GPU which makes it less-than-ideal for MorphOS.

Watched some PS3 Linux videos now. These guys seem to have a lot of fun playing around in the console, but not so much on the desktop.

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Ah yes! Thanks for the hint.

So it's 3,2 GHz + Altivec In-order Xenon
vs. 1,24 GHz Out-of-order Espresso
vs. 0,35 - 1,67 GHz + Altivec Out-of-order G4 7400-7455
vs. 1,6 - 2,7 GHz + Altivec Out-of-order G5 970.

I guess the Wii U would at least be a perfect replacement/improvement of the G4 Mac Minis having more CPU power, more/faster RAM and a more capable GPU.

[ Editiert durch ernsteiswuerfel 29.06.2020 - 00:29 ]

> 0,35 - 1,67 GHz + Altivec In-Order G4 7400-7455

G4, which started as G3+AltiVec, is out-of-order just like the G3.

> 1,8 - 2,5 GHz + Altivec Out-of-order G5 970.

1.6 - 2.7 GHz :-)

> I guess the Wii U would at least be a perfect replacement/improvement
> of the G4 Mac Minis having more CPU power

The Espresso cores are slightly slower, but there are 3 of them :-)

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it works like a removable disk, for Linux there are better platforms.

@Andreas_Wolf: Thanks for the exact numbers! I will update my post accordingly.

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Which in context of MorphOS is probably pointless...

> Thanks for the exact numbers! I will update my post accordingly.

Btw, there are conflicting information on the web whether the first iBook G4 generation used the 7455 (see Wikipedia) or the 7457 (see everymac.com).

>>> I guess the Wii U would at least be a perfect replacement/improvement
>>> of the G4 Mac Minis having more CPU power

>> The Espresso cores are slightly slower, but there are 3 of them :-)

> Which in context of MorphOS is probably pointless...

Yes, absolutely, but taking the core number into account was the only possibility to have the Wii U end up with more CPU power than the Mac mini G4 ;-)

I can't believe you guys are still lobbing this one back and forth.

The PS3 doesn't have enough memory and the video (Nvidia based) won't work.
Why rehash this idea?

> I can't believe you guys are still lobbing this one back and forth. The PS3
> doesn't have enough memory and the video (Nvidia based) won't work.

I guess that's why the latest posts centered on the Wii U which has 8 times the RAM and Radeon R600/R700 graphics :-)

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So that some get ass pain.

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I looked at Wii U and it looks very neat and maybe works passively, almost perfect replacement for the Mac mini, but is this console well documented? I read that Xbox 360 is a tragedy when it comes to Linux, there is no audio driver etc.

> is this console well documented?

It's enough for Linux to run, apparently. Not sure how complete the support is, though.

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Specs look good enough (Wii U).
Of course, the fact that it Nintendo stopped shipping them three years ago makes it a harder buy (although they are more recent than PowerMacs).

Nice compact system, not a bad idea.

> the fact that it Nintendo stopped shipping them three years ago
> makes it a harder buy

Yes, but currently it's still easily available new. I can find it starting at 400 EUR.

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That sounds about right. I've seen them going for as high as $699.