Go go PS2s!!!
Anything that can make a cheap supercomputer is pretty darn good. I’m surprised it was that easy to convert the Emotion Engine’s power.
By contrast, it is almost impossible for researchers to install the Linux system on Microsoft’s Xbox game console.
Duh. :noway:
I vote pathetic!
The thing about the Linux thing is that we have XBOX Linux so those researchers are obviously doing something wrong. However, it just goes to show how the XBOX is a console and NOT a computer, at least like so many here claim it is. This also clearly shows that the PS2 is a computer. I ask again, what is wrong with computer games? Since that seems to be a lead problem with the XBOX around here. Doma, did you read the title? The thing cost $50,000. I don’t consider that cheap. It maybe cheap in comparison (I’m not sure), but that is still pretty expensive.
Maybe Doma meant that it goes “cheep.”
This isn’t the ToB.
Sorry. But, uh … this looks kinda cool. I forget, how does one define a supercomputer?
Originally posted by Infonick
Doma, did you read the title? The thing cost $50,000. I don’t consider that cheap. It maybe cheap in comparison (I’m not sure), but that is still pretty expensive.
I had trouble finding accurate price information, but the best estimate I could find was in the neighborhood of $200,000 for a low-end supercomputer (about the same capacity as the PS2 chain). Yeah, it’s expensive, and I’ll never own one, but it is a lot less than the average supercomputer.
Originally posted by DomaDragoon
I had trouble finding accurate price information, but the best estimate I could find was in the neighborhood of $200,000 for a low-end supercomputer (about the same capacity as the PS2 chain). Yeah, it’s expensive, and I’ll never own one, but it is a lot less than the average supercomputer.
I see, then it’s cheaper, but not cheap. The difference is quite nice though.
All consoles are computers. They are just made differently. The X-Box most closely resembles ordinary desktop computers, since microsoft used hardware and software very similiar to what windows machines ordinarily use (like Windows, which we know crashes a lot). At the same time, they decided to make it difficult for consumers to actually mess with the system. The Playstation 2 doesn’t run windows, it uses Sony’s stuff to control the hardware and software. Linux has also been made to run on other systems, like the Dreamcast, if I recall correctly.
Consoles tend to have a few advantages for games. Their hardware is state of the art (at least when they are released), possibly a bit ahead of the home computer market. It is heavily optimized and tuned towards playing games, the components are selected to make really good games possible. All the systems are made the same, so developers only need to develop for the one platform (the actual system). Trying to develop for PCs is like trying to develop for hundreds of different platforms, with variations in their memory, processor speed (in multiple processors, not just the CPU), memory speed, video card capabilities, operating system (and even computers with the same OS might have different versions of it), input devices (not everyone has joysticks. Consoles provide a standard controller that is excellent for games), etc.
… Okay, when I go into the gaming industry, it’ll be the console gaming industry.
Originally posted by Vorpy
[b]All consoles are computers. They are just made differently. The X-Box most closely resembles ordinary desktop computers, since microsoft used hardware and software very similiar to what windows machines ordinarily use (like Windows, which we know crashes a lot). At the same time, they decided to make it difficult for consumers to actually mess with the system. The Playstation 2 doesn’t run windows, it uses Sony’s stuff to control the hardware and software. Linux has also been made to run on other systems, like the Dreamcast, if I recall correctly.Consoles tend to have a few advantages for games. Their hardware is state of the art (at least when they are released), possibly a bit ahead of the home computer market. It is heavily optimized and tuned towards playing games, the components are selected to make really good games possible. All the systems are made the same, so developers only need to develop for the one platform (the actual system). Trying to develop for PCs is like trying to develop for hundreds of different platforms, with variations in their memory, processor speed (in multiple processors, not just the CPU), memory speed, video card capabilities, operating system (and even computers with the same OS might have different versions of it), input devices (not everyone has joysticks. Consoles provide a standard controller that is excellent for games), etc. [/b]
Consoles are state of the art when released. However, they run more efficiently than desktop computers because you don’t have 25-30 background processes running on top of 10 multi-tasked tasks. I mean, hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete right now, and look at how many processes are running. For me…
Studio.exe
mirc.exe
taskmgr.exe
mozilla.exe
icq.exe
POPROXY.EXE
alertsvc.exe
apache.exe
itouch.exe
… (A LOT more)
Also, consoles don’t have as many peripherals as a computer.
Computer: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor, 2-3 USBs, Printer.
PS2: Two memory cards, Two conrollers, Two USBs, and the AV.
And there’s Linux for PS2 as well.
Contrary to popular belief consols are not as state of the art as you might think, very rarely will a consol come anywhere near an off the shelf PC when it comes to pure specs. The real difference comes from the fact that consols are far more specialized that PCs. When you buy a consol you intend to use it for one thing alone, gaming, so you don`t need a bit hard drive, tons of ram or an ultra fast processor. You need a decent sound and video card, enough ram to load a good sized area and a decent CPU.
The other difference is, like Xelo mentioned, that all the hardware is identical, the reason games crash on PCs is because they have to run on hardware that was never originally intended to work together, it was just modified later on so it would be compatible, on top of that you have different configurations, and combinations of updates and off the shelf software, all of which could potentially bring the whole system down because of some fluke (I’ve seen it happen.)
In addition to that games made for consol are designed to work with a certain level of system specs and only that level of specs, you won’t get people trying to run Warcraft 3 on a PII 200, because all the software for a consol is optomized for that consol’s hardware, and since there’s no other possible combination of better or worst hardware, there’s no problem.
On top of that there’s what Xelo mentioned, there are tons of background services and programs running on any PC, these control everything from keyboard inputs to internet connection, not to mention tons of other useless junk, you simply don’t have that on a consol.
Designing software for a PC is far more complicated than for a consol since you have so much to consider and take into account.
The console doesn’t match an off the shelf computer for general computation, but the graphics capabilities for the consoles are usually better, with a specially designed graphics processor. And the graphics features are hard to use in a computer, since there are so many different graphics cards and you want to support the old ones as well as the new ones, and also different drivers might have different bugs in them. With a console, the video processor is standard, the driver is standard, so if there are any bugs they will be consistent on all the systems.
Not having so many programs running helps. What also helps is not having much of an operating system either. A general purpose operating system like windows or linux uses up a lot of resources on its own merely coordinating all the programs and hardware. Older consoles didn’t have an OS, just a few hardware functions for bootstrapping the game. Newer consoles probably have a fairly minimalistic OS designed for running games. Well, except the X-Box which uses some specially made version of windows, but it also has a faster processor and more memory to make up for that.
Originally posted by Vorpy
Well, except the X-Box which uses some specially made version of windows, but it also has a faster processor and more memory to make up for that.
It also has some nifty features that require that, such as being able to play CD songs in games.