Sunday November 22 2009
Sony Playstation 3
Forum Threads
Story Header

Sony Playstation 3: End all arguments: PS3 vs 360

By: Michael Perry - Published November 13, 2006 at 12:38 AM EST - Writer Archive

The Cost of the Operating System

This will be a much shorter section than the others just showing how much of each console’s resources are allocated to run the operating system.

Starting off with the Xbox 360 here is what we are looking at.

The 360 operating system is constantly running in the background and I’d go into what it offers, but everyone most likely knows by now so I’ll go straight to the resource allocations.

Everything comes at a cost and here are the costs for the 360.

  • 32MB of the 512mb of available GDDR3 RAM
  • 3% CPU time on Core1 and Core2 (nothing is reserved on Core0)

    Microsoft still has room left from what they’ve already reserved for future updates.

    Transitioning to the PS3’s Operating system here is what the resource allocation looks like.

    Sony of course has decided to match Microsoft by using a constantly running in the background Operating system and here is what it includes. Again I will not be going into what it offers as most already know by now.

    The costs for the PS3’s operating system are as follows

  • 32mb of the 256mb of available GDDR3 memory off the RSX chip
  • 64mb of the 256mb of available XDR memory off the Cell CPU
  • 1 SPE of 7 constantly reserved
  • 1 SPE of 7 able to be "taken" by the OS at a moments notice (games have to give it up if requested)

    Now the thing that probably jumps at people the most is the fact that the 360 uses much less resources to run its operating system. How could this be? No answers were provided on exactly why (Nondisclosure Agreements Suck), and while I may have a couple of technical reasons for why that may explain it, I don’t truly know so I wont attempt to. I assume maybe it has something to do with Microsoft’s experience with Operating Systems. Or it could be the ps3’s browser nobody really knows and the people that do know wont talk.

  • Continued (6/11) »

    User Comments

    - 150 Comments

    » This story has had 150 comments posted since November 13, 2006 at 12:38 AM EST.

    Latest Poll