Portable Planet

People wanting to dive into PS3 Linux application development have less excuses to get on the ball and start doing their thing. The Yellow Dog should be having puppies in no time.

The word from RapidMind and Terra Soft:

RapidMind and Terra Soft announced today that they have teamed up to make application development for the PlayStation 3 easier than ever. As part of an agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated, Terra Soft Solutions announced last month the release of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3. With the RapidMind Development Platform, developers can easily create applications that will run on the PlayStation 3, as well as other hardware solutions based on the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE).

RapidMind will be providing a full-featured evaluation version of the RapidMind Development Platform v2.0 for distribution from Terra Soft’s YDL.net Enhanced accounts. “It’s exciting to imagine what will happen when you put a supercomputer-class PlayStation 3 with a great OS into the hands of developers,” said Ray DePaul, RapidMind President and CEO. “Developers are eager to take advantage of the Cell BE and the PlayStation 3 without the need to understand the underlying architecture of this complex multi-core processor. The RapidMind platform makes that possible.”

PlayStation 3 is the latest interactive entertainment console from Sony, designed for a cutting-edge gaming experience. The PlayStation 3 incorporates the Cell BE processor which was created by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba for more than gaming. The Cell BE is already available from IBM in the form of a blade for the IBM(R) BladeCenter(R) Server as well as from Mercury Computer Systems in several form factors.

“The PlayStation 3 places a supercomputer in the home,” said Kai Staats, Terra Soft CEO. “Yellow Dog Linux provides a complete Linux OS for the PlayStation 3 resulting in a very powerful computing platform. We are thrilled to be working with RapidMind to make this platform more accessible for professional developers and hobbyists alike.” Developer’s now have an excellent development platform to develop applications for the Cell BE, whether for deployment on the PlayStation 3 or as a jumping off point for deployments to other Cell BE based products, including those from IBM, Sony, or Mercury.

RapidMind will also be participating in a Hack-a-thon (www.hpc-consortium.net) from January 20th to the 26th for the optimization of applications for the Cell BE, hosted by Terra Soft at their Loveland, Colorado headquarters. RapidMind, along with organizations such as Argonne, Oak Ridge, Colorado State, IBM, Mercury, and Tungsten Graphics have committed resources with dozens of other labs, universities, and individuals planning to participate. The intent of this event is to create a set of application examples to showcase the potential of the Cell BE.

Source: Press Release