IBM opens Power chips for custom h/w

[JetRacer]

I suspect Wayne's 1:st april fools joke stole all the attention the first time around...

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45350
http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5182742.html

IBM is going to release all developer info necessary to customize the Power processors. Note: there are three lines of processors. The Power line is the one of interest. It resides in A1, Peggy, Game Cube, the PowerMac G-series and
so forth.

The big news is that IBM specificly did this to allow for adding custom hardware to Power chips. Even if no Amiga/Compatible vendor can afford this then there's always the possibility to buy and perhaps contribute to a game console manufacturers customized Power chip.

I see no problem whatsoever in having the exact same performance or come second to one of the hottest consoles. Performance is never a selling point; price, experienced performance and software is (where would Nintendo be without SMB and Zelda?). Besides, if the console mfg. can be convinced to release a console game interface (USB or the like) then they could eradicate piracy driven emulation (yeah, right =), earn an extra buck and expand game developers market.

Imagine if you could go out and buy a PS2 game and a special PS2 USB reader (console mfg's $ motivator) and play some *NEW* games for a change? Bump the hardware figures (A3/P3/PS3) and add a couple of years to current date.

Comments..? (boo! hiss!)

[JetRacer]

You know, nearly every fact you present contradicts the statements made by IBM officials quoted in the story I linked to (news.com), or just plain silly. There may be some things that checks out, but that doesn't justify the rest. In your defence I must say that some of the facts you present are very, very old and no longer accurate.

You might be right the speculatory dept. but that's another matter.

[JetRacer]

Floid: thanks for not biting and flaming my ass off. I realize now that my responce wasn't very... ...diplomatic. To say the least. Sorry about that.

I think the problem is that I talk in theoretical future and you talk in practical present. And maybe I should have bumped the figures by factor two instead of one (A4/P4 and PS4) to emphasize that.

Anyhow, don't take any mentioning of brands (beyond Power) literall. I couldn't care less if the label said Sega, Nintendo, Sony, or X-Box. Well, to be honest I would find the X-Box option offensive :-)

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Hmm.. I don't think IBM just "happened" to mention RedHat, though. The brand and what it implies were probably there for reasons other than to score a few cheap points in the Linux sphere, nor to please RedHat.

[JetRacer]

To make things clearer: I meant an USB reader compatible with whatever copy-protection scheme they intend to use on  future DVD based consoles. So, license customized PPC and let users buy the reader. Both console mfg. and games dev. get a piece of the action.

Obvius conclution: it's very much harder to create a hack which allows X-Box2 games to be played on a x86 desktop when using a PPC cpu. Put yourself in M$ shoes: what worse nightmare than if X-Box games suddenly were pirated like hell because someone made an emulator (blazing fast - no need for CPU emu). The only edge it has is the fact that popular games are released for X-Box first. Take that away and the X-Box will stop dead in it's tracks

I never visit ann.lu