LINUXGAMES

Elaborating a bit on zakk’s PS3Linux post: it was previouslymentionedthat IBM’s Arnd Bergmann was in the processof porting Linux to the Cellprocessor (dubbed the ppc64-bpa architecture). It has now beenannouncedthat Bergmann will be making a presentation on “The Cell Processor ProgrammingModel”; specifically, how to utilize the Synergistic Processing Units underLinux:

A model has been proposed to provide an interface thatattempts to integrate well into the existing set of Linux system calls andenable software authors to easily integrate the use of SPUs into their ownlibraries and applications.

The presentation will be held atLinuxTag (English) inKarlsruhe, Germany on June 25th.

Moreover, EETimes mentioned that IBM, Sony, and Toshiba will be releasing the fullCell specification and development libraries to the open source community inthe near future:

“We’re not yet sure about the right licensingterms for the libraries. It can be hard to give stuff away for free,” Kahlesaid in an interview after a presentation at the Spring Processor Forum here.

The trio is almost done with an application binary interface and languageextensions for Cell. A system-level simulator is also nearly complete. Yet tocome is a full-fledged Linux implementation for the CPU.

“Our plan is to open-source the software for Cell and productize differentparts as we go along,” said Kahle.

PS2 Linux has been sold out for a while in North America; hopefully any PS3 Linux kit has a longer production run.

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