PS3 OS (CELL OS) == modified Darwin ? Possible!

May 14th, 2009, 22:26 Posted By: wraggster

News via streetskaterFU:

In the past few days we noticed many hints pointing that the PlayStation3 operating system may be based on Apple's Darwin (OS X = Darwin + Aqua).

As big Apple fans as we are, you might remember this video from 2005/2006:



You clearly can see a demonstration of IBM showing the CELL chip running on a MAC OS X desktop. They also stated, that they show this terrain engine over a year, which means 2004/2005. (http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/08/...er.compatible/)

For the fast fact searching guys of you, here a little FAQ we made:

Q: Can Darwin even run on the PS3's architecture?
A: Yes it can! The PPC is supported by Darwin.

Q: How about the HDD file system?
A: The PS3 uses a few partitions with different file systems, the major one is UFS2, which is also supported by Darwin and all other BSD Systems (Darwin is also in the BSD branch).

Q: Can I see hints in the XMB?
A: Yes you can! Just take a quick look on the "Information Board" and compare it with Apples widget system. (more about it below)

Q: PS3 uses ELF files as executables? Darwin uses MACH-O !?
A: The usage of ELF files could be adopted in Darwin.

Now we come to the PS3's "Information Board". After knightsolidus' HDD decryption methode showed up, several people posted some file lists on forums like demonhades.org. There we see; for example, those filenames:


"/npdrm/informationboard/

Dutch.lproj
Italian.lproj
da.lproj
nb.lproj
setting.xml
zh_CN.lproj
French.lproj
Japanese.lproj
data
pt.lproj
setting_qa.xml
zh_TW.lproj
German.lproj
Spanish.lproj
fi.lproj
rss.swf
string
Icon.png
config.xml
ko.lproj
ru.lproj
sv.lproj"

So put the "lproj" in google and what does show up? Ah! - MAC stuff again "lproj" means "language project directories".

http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTA...alization.html

Once you enter the lproj folder you will notice file names which are again exact the same as on the developer site above. Open them and again - identical commands inside.

"Localizing Widgets" - The XMB widget is based on it.

Back in 2006 Kotaku reported about the official PS3 US website showing an Apple logo on the frontsite of a PS3.


Surely SONY gave a short statement, claiming it was caused by "an external error". Who knows ^^

To finalize this post, a short quote by Ken Kutaragi:


"The kernel will be running on the Cell, and multiple OSes will be running on top of that as applications. Of course, the PS3 can run Linux. If Linux can run, so can Lindows. Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and (Mac OS) Tiger, if the publishers want to do so."


To much coincidences for us ;-)

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