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Madagascar on a Playstation 3: Motivation, Curiosity, and Fun

This seminar explores the possibility of running Madagascar, a geophysics software, on a Playstation 3 (PS3) console. Discover the hardware, Linux compatibility, and installation process for Yellow Dog Linux on a PS3. Find out how to get Madagascar running on a PS3 and explore the limitations and potential of using a PS3 for computational purposes.

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Madagascar on a Playstation 3: Motivation, Curiosity, and Fun

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  1. Madagascar on a Playstation 3 William Burnett Friday Seminar December 4, 2009

  2. Motivation • Curiosity • Playstation 3 (PS3) is an expensive game console but a cheap home computer • Cell processor

  3. Overview • PS3 background and hardware • Linux on a PS3 • Madagascar on a PS3

  4. Precedence of PS3 in Geophysics • Bednar and Bednar, 2007, Playing around with a seismic Playstation cluster, SEG Expanded Abstracts • Panorama Technologies Software • Raytracing • FD Modeling • 2-way RTM • Modified FD modeling code ran ~10 times faster than similar array of AMD processors.

  5. PS3: 4 Generations

  6. PS3: 4 Generations

  7. PS3 Hardware • Processor: • “Cell Processor” • Sony/Toshiba/IBM • Memory: • 256 MB RAM • Graphics: • NVIDIA RSX “Reality Synthesizer”

  8. PS3 Hardware • Processor: • “Cell Processor” • Sony/Toshiba/IBM • Memory: • 256 MB RAM  • Graphics: • NVIDIA RSX “Reality Synthesizer”

  9. Cell Processor 1 Dual Thread Power Processing Element (Normal Processor) 8 “Synergistic Processing Elements” (SPEs) (SIMD Vector Processors) Each 3.2 GHz http://www.csh.rit.edu/~oguns/ps3/imgs/Cell_Arch.gif

  10. Cell Processor 1 Dual Thread Power Processing Element (Normal Processor) 8 “Synergistic Processing Elements” (SPEs) (SIMD Vector Processors) Each 3.2 GHz http://www.csh.rit.edu/~oguns/ps3/imgs/Cell_Arch.gif

  11. PS3 Game Operating System

  12. Linux on a PS3

  13. Linux on a PS3 • Most Linux distributions work • I chose Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 (YDL) • Designed with PS3 in mind • No one has put Madagascar on Yellow Dog Linux yet (as far as I know)

  14. Getting Yellow Dog Linux • http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/ • Download DVD ISO Image: • yellowdog-6.1-ppc-DVD_20090201_NEW_PS3.iso • Burn ISO image to a DVD • Download/print the installation guide: • http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/installation/ydl6.1_ps3_guide.pdf

  15. YDL Installation: Materials • Yellow Dog ISO image DVD • YDL installation guide or another computer with internet access • USB keyboard and mouse • HDTV connected by 5-component or HDMI or a monitor connected by HDMI

  16. YDL Installation: Procedure • 1.) Insert YDL DVD into Playstation while the power is on. • 2.) Reboot into “Other OS”

  17. YDL Installation: Procedure

  18. YDL Installation: Procedure

  19. YDL Installation: Procedure

  20. YDL Installation: Procedure • 3.) Choose resolution • 480i • 720p • 1080i • 1080p Command Line Installation (Still pretty easy.) Graphical Installation (Easy!!!)

  21. YDL Installation: Procedure • 4.) Follow installation guide through configuration* • 5.) Install (Go do something else) • 6.) Follow guide through first-boot *At “Package Selection”, choose all three types of computer use: home, media, and programming

  22. YDL Installation: Done! • Finish by configuring wireless and desktop fontsize/themes.

  23. YDL Installation: Done! • Finish by configuring wireless and desktop fontsize/themes.

  24. Get Madagascar • Get Subversion (SVN)* • From command line: • svn co https://rsf.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rsf/trunk RSFSRC • Unpack (tar –xvf …) *May be included if you select programming packages during YDL installation

  25. Install Madagascar • Follow ahay.org walkthrough: • http://ahay.org/wiki/Installation • One problem encountered: • Software included with YDL 6.1 did not have libXaw-devel development tool. • Needed for sfpen, xtpen, etc… (Data displays) • Found power pc version online, installation completed

  26. Madagascar on a PS3!

  27. Conclusions • Madagascar in Yellow Dog Linux? • Yes • Madagascar on a PS3? • Yes • Extra computational power? • Not really • SPE use requires special programming • Memory is very limited

  28. Things to look at… • SPE development kit from IBM with C compiler: spu-gcc • Modified code for Cell processor • Not platform independent, but may be interesting • News of future Cell processor development (doesn’t look promising…)

  29. Thanks!

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