Sony PlayStation 3 Support in Linux Kernel

Sony has added new patches into the stable 2.6.20 Linux kernel tree, which furthermore, adds machine-specific features for the new PlayStation 3 gaming console. The patches should greatly simplify the maintenance of the Linux kernels for the PlayStation 3, which is already supported by Yellow Dog Linux, thanks to a development deal between Sony and TerraSoft, and a special version of Fedora Core 5.

Starting with the 2.6.13 release, the Linux kernel has gained generic support for the Cell processor, on which the PlayStation 3 gaming console is based, but the new patches add machine-specific support for technology such as the PlayStation 3's memory architecture, DMA (direct memory access) model, and SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) model. The code for the patches has been written by Sony.

The newly added kernel patches will make supporting the PlayStation 3 under Linux much simpler, because when creating kernels for the machine, there will be no need to apply external patches, which can complicate the kernel build process, or even lead to conflicts, if there are more than one set of patches applied to the kernel.

You can browse the new PS3 patches in Linus Torvalds's kernel tree, here.

You can read more on how to install the Yellow Dog Linux here.

You can find some installation instructions about Fedora Core 5 here.

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