Rumor - ps3 2.0 fw will have 32MB reserved to OS

[DieH@rd]

XMB
Currently Uses: 64MB from XDR RAM, and 32MB from GDDR3 RAM and 7th SPU
2.0: 32MB from XDR RAM, 0 from GDDR3 RAM, 7th SPU can be used (no longer reserved)




In-Game XMB

Firmware 2.0 will have in-game XMB.

Not all of the icons will be available on the XMB during a game.

Under 'Friends' there will be 'Block List', 'Add a Freind', 'Players Met', 'Message Box', and all of your friends. Your friends' avatars will not show in-game in order to conserve memory.

Under 'Network' there will be 'Download Management'.

Under 'Game' there will be the disk icon with the title under it. Seelecting this will prompt you for quitting the game.

The 'Video' column will not appear.

Under 'Music' there will be all of your sound files. You can play any of them and they will continue to play after you exit the in-game XMB. You will not be able to delete any of your songs in-game.

The 'Photo' column will not appear.

Under 'Setteings' there will be:

-'Game Settings' wich will include 'PS/PS2 Upscaler' settings and 'PS/PS2 Smoothing' settings.

-'System Settings' wich will include a new subsetting called 'Turn Off the System'.

-'Date and Time Settings' wich will include all the normal features.

-'Accessory Settings' wich will include all the normal features.

-'Display Settings' wich will include everything except 'Video Output Settings'.

-'Sound Settings' will unclude everything except 'Audio Output Settings'.

The 'Users' column will not appear.

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=149707

Can they shrink the memory requirements that much? I remember that they used a ton of memory for On Screen Keyboard module alone [around 10mb, or even more]

Lets hope that they will announce this at Laipzig...

 

[Carl B]

The current usage is actually lower than indicated, for what it's worth. The whole rumor sounds like BS though.

 

[morlock]

I really hope that XMB-part is true, thats how its supposed to work!

Is it impossibly to halt the game, dump some of the memory to the HDD and bring in what's needed when pressing the PS-button, then after pressing the PS-button again restore the memory and proceed with the game? Why are Sony not cacheing more stuff on the harddrive, like the webbrowser which run out of memory very fast, or the Friends-icons thats being downloaded with every sign in.

It would be nice to be able to start the webbrowser from in-game to go read hints when you're stuck.

 

[sionyboy]

Ble, as CarlB said the OS requirements are 52/32 now, so whoever wrote that article is wayyy behind the times (or had just read the Carmack interview and felt the need to jump to the rescue).

It should also be noted that the original thread at the playstation forums have since been removed.

edit: oh wow! I can edit!
http://community.eu.playstation.com/showpost.php?p=2324542&postcount=1

 

[DieH@rd]

From that old article:


Currently, as of SDK 1.60, the PS3 operating system takes up 52 MB of main memory and 32 MB of graphics memory (84 MB total).
http://www.innerbits.com/blog/2007/05/09/ps3-memory-footprint/

 

[Todd33]

It sounds like an Internet rumor wish list.

 

[phat]

There's one item that lends an air of credibility to the list: the reduction of OS footprint in GDDR3 from 32MB to 0MB. A frothing fanb** wouldn't be so audacious as to come up with that...?

 

[D3B]

There's one item that lends an air of credibility to the list: the reduction of OS footprint in GDDR3 from 32MB to 0MB. A frothing fanb** wouldn't be so audacious as to come up with that...?

Does there have to be any video memory really, or is that impossible?

 

[inefficient]

Sounds too good to be true.

And I don't see how they can totally give up SPU 7 and make custom soundtracks possible at the same time.

The only right way to do custom sound tracks in my eyes, is to provide an SDK that allows developers to optionally implement it themselves into their games.

 

[22psi]

Great if true, doesn't bother me if not though.

 

[Crossbar]

Sounds too good to be true.

And I don't see how they can totally give up SPU 7 and make custom soundtracks possible at the same time.

I agree. Sounds like pure BS.

However, I do expect Sony to release more of the reserved memory, but I expect it to be done in smaller chunks over the next few years.

 

[Mrakor]

The only right way to do custom sound tracks in my eyes, is to provide an SDK that allows developers to optionally implement it themselves into their games.

Afair, in one interview FW developers stated, that feature like this already in SDK.

 

[Konrad]

Could someone explain why PS OS would need that much memory? Why can't you swap the data to disk when the OS is interupted by the user?
Then the memory footprint wouldnt impact at all, or?

 

[DJ12]

Could someone explain why PS OS would need that much memory? Why can't you swap the data to disk when the OS is interupted by the user?
Then the memory footprint wouldnt impact at all, or?

I may have never needed that much memory, but it is far better to reserve to much and reduce it than not reserve enough and have to increase it.

I agree. Sounds like pure BS.

However, I do expect Sony to release more of the reserved memory, but I expect it to be done in smaller chunks over the next few years.

Didn't the PSP have a massive chunk of reserved memory all freed up in a recent firmware update too?

They may have realised they are never going to need that memory now and decided to pass it on sooner rather than later due to the bad press it seems to have been picking up.

The original article also stated that the 7th SPE will no longer be reserved for the OS, but if memory serves me correctly the 7th SPE can already be used by developers, its just that the OS takes precedent when it needs it.

I think the 7th was always reserved, the OS has an option on the 6th which developers could use.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

With the supposed introduction of more functions, a reserved SPE is more important now than ever - it might actually do something! It'll presumably be used for PS3 to PSP, audio playback, XMB control, and perhaps PVR. You could possibly share SPE7 with games, and let games take a performance hit while you multitask.

The RAM thing sounds equally unlikely to me. You'll want some GDDR reserved for XMB framebuffer and downscaling to remote devices. 32 MB for the OS might not be too small though. I remember when computers were 'full feature' in 512 KB...you should be able to squeeze the functionality into 32 MB, especially with the HDD to lean on. Sony could have had planned something memory-hungry that they've given up on. Perhaps those reserved RAM included PS3ye resources for driving camera input in all situations, and they've decided to drop it as an optionally supported device?

Anyhoo, I give this rumour a 15% chance. 32/16 MB XDR/GDDR, I could have gone with.

 

[ErnstH]

Quite a lot of typo's.

 

[Crossbar]

Didn't the PSP have a massive chunk of reserved memory all freed up in a recent firmware update too?

Yes I think so. They also recently bumped up the CPU frequency allowed in PSP games.

They may have realised they are never going to need that memory now and decided to pass it on sooner rather than later due to the bad press it seems to have been picking up.

Possibly, but I would be really surprised if they released all that memory prior to the release of Home. I think some of that reserved memory could be handy if you want to drop in and out of Home quickly. The first version of Home will probably also not be that well optimised, I guess the focus is to get the functionality right at this stage.

However, I also expect the release of the 2.0 firmware to coincide with the release of Home. I think Home should be worthy a .0 release.

Edit: I find the possible usage of RAM that Shifty mentions quite possible as well.

 

[Konrad]

32 MB for the OS might not be too small though. I remember when computers were 'full feature' in 512 KB...you should be able to squeeze the functionality into 32 MB, especially with the HDD to lean on.

There are few OSes out there with a full fledged networking stack and USB stack with alot less memory footprint. My minds comes to QNX (1.44 floppy with graphical UI, Graphical Browser) even if its a higly compressed image it does run on 16 Mb RAM). BeIA/BeOS did the same.

 

[archangelmorph]

Smells like BS to me..

 

[Arwin]

In my view, there are a lot of details that aren't so obvious but still make sense that make it convincing.

We'll see. Many of the XMB rumors so far have been true. The timing is right also. Now that they are locking down on what they are doing with Home, they also know what basic support and functions they need in XMB in-game. And GT5 Prologue is coming soon with online (figure the connection out yourself).

I'm buying it. You can come back and taunt me here later.