Build a parallel program development platform using PS3 and Linux

Use PS3 and Linux to build a parallel program development platform-general Linux technology-Linux programming and kernel information. The following is a detailed description. The PS3 uses a Cell processor and has nine cores. Although it was introduced to the market in the name of a game machine, sony made some features of the PS3 platform open, allowing users to install other operating systems on the PS3, turns the PS3 into a high-performance computing platform (sony disables one core, and the other is used as a system backup. Users can only use the remaining seven cores ). The operating system manufacturer that cooperates with Sony is Terrasoft. The company has been committed to developing Linux operating systems for the Power architecture, which is one reason why Sony chose Terrasoft as a partner. Terrasoft's Yellow Dog Linux has the PS3 version. The current 5.0 version of dvd iso can be downloaded directly from the company's website.

First, we will briefly introduce the hardware configuration.

The PS3 used is the 40 Gb hard drive. According to SONY's announcement, 20 GB and 60 GB machines are no longer in production, because the company will do its best to develop better games and focus on the performance of the PS3 platform, the other point is that 40 Gb hard drive consumes moderate energy and the electricity cost is getting more and more expensive.

The basic configuration is as follows:

CPU: Cell Broadband Engine GPU: RSX
Memory: 256XDR Main RAM, 256 M GDDR3 VRAM
Output: two interfaces are available.
Communication: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) × 1 IEEE 802.11 B/g Bluetooth®2.0 (EDR)
Avoutput:
Resolution: 1080 p, 720 I, 480 p, p, I
HDMI, AVMULTI, optical audio output

The display is Mitsubishi's Diamondcrysta RDT222WM. This display has an HDMI interface and is compatible with the PS3. When running a game, there is no Black edge around the display. However, when running linux, the display can only use a P resolution, there was a flash in 1080. You can also use a normal TV, but when running linux, The Flash is so powerful that you don't have money to buy a high-definition TV.

Because this PS3 only has two USB interfaces, it is not enough to connect the keyboard, mouse, handle, and other peripherals, so I also bought a USB HUB, preferably a USB HUB that can be powered by myself, avoid insufficient current when connecting to some peripherals.

In addition, the Cell processor is briefly introduced. This processor was developed by three companies, IBM, SONY, and toshba. The biggest feature is that there are nine processing units. There is a master Processing Unit, which is similar to a common CPU. It is a dual-threaded processor based on the IBM Power architecture. It is called (Power Processing Element: PPE ). The other eight are called the dedicated processor (synergic processing elements) SPE. Many general-purpose processors do not have the functions and are mainly used for computation. It can be said that PPE is a resource manager, and spis is a specific operator.

Prepare the hardware and the operating system. Download the yellow dog linux (YDL) for PS3 DVD on the terrasoft website (PS3 only knows about the DVD), about 3.6 GB, and burn it. Start the PS3 and choose to allocate 10 Gb space to other systems in the formatting tool under settings and system settings. Then, insert the DVD into the optical drive and select another system as the default system. PS3 restarts automatically.

After restarting, the system will automatically discover yellow dog linux and automatically boot to the installation interface. The installation process is similar to installing linux on a pc. After the installation is complete, restart the system and enter the yellow dog system. If you want to return to the gameos of the PS3, the guiding gameos menu appears under the ydl application and System Tool menu. After you click, the system restarts and enters the gameos. Enter boot-game-OS In the command line and kboot prompt during system boot to enter the PS3 game system.

Note the following points:

1. If the PS3 is brand new, you must first upgrade the system after the boot. On the one hand, you can get a lot of system security updates, and on the other hand, you can also get more functions of gameos.

2. When you click the pilot gameos menu of YDL, some systems may not respond. This is a configuration file problem in the YDL system. You can modify it as follows:

Open the/sbin/boot-game-OS/file and change ps3flash to sdb. At the same time, modify/usr/bin/boot-game-OS in the same way.

After installing linux, you can try multi-core parallel programming. IBM provides many free development tools, sdks, Compiler, and simulator.