Hi!
The folks at xbox-linux.sourceforge.net hacked the microsoft xbox and made a linux installer for it. I thought it could be a nice box for running pd in installations and performances since it is small, cheap (250EUR), reasonable performance (733MHz PIII, 64MB ram), and a basic but usefull set of interfaces (4xUSB, 100baseTX ethernet, stereo sound output, composite video output) and storage (10GB HD, dvd-rom). I went ahead and bought an xbox, and installed a modchip. Installation went smooth, and pd seems to run fine "out-of-the-box", but I haven't stressed or used it a lot so far.
The downsides (for installation and performance applications):
glueing I replaced the connectors with regular USB ones).
available (not good for GEM)
the mutated dvd-reader can be replaced with some extra modifications.
So far it looks perfectly usable, but not as your main patch development machine.
j#|@
it is a good linux box. audio card is comparable to a slightly disabled sblive [though pumped for M$ EAX]. though as johannes notes, an external usb snd-card is the way to go. take the case off and you have a rackmountable 733+MHZ dvd playing PC with a great GL capable [GEM] card [once i can get hw accelleration wking] +whatever hdd for $EU200. seems to be a 64mb ram limit [unless happy about soldering in new ram] and haven't worked out the tvout to vga thing yet.
julian
checking linux for ps2 when they get around to sending me the dev kit.
julian
On Thu, 6 Feb 2003 01:14:52 +0100 (MET) Johannes Taelman Johannes.Taelman@rug.ac.be wrote:
//Hi! // //The folks at xbox-linux.sourceforge.net hacked the microsoft xbox and made //a linux installer for it. I thought it could be a nice box for running pd //in installations and performances since it is small, cheap (250EUR), //reasonable performance (733MHz PIII, 64MB ram), and a basic but usefull //set of interfaces (4xUSB, 100baseTX ethernet, stereo sound output, //composite video output) and storage (10GB HD, dvd-rom). I went ahead and //bought an xbox, and installed a modchip. Installation went smooth, and pd //seems to run fine "out-of-the-box", but I haven't stressed or used it a //lot so far. // //The downsides (for installation and performance applications): //* the usb-ports are not of any standard shape (but with some tooling and //glueing I replaced the connectors with regular USB ones). //* the 3d/opengl acceleration of the geforce3-mutant inside is not //available (not good for GEM) //* no sound input (solvable via an usb-audio device) //* fan noise (more than my desktop PC) //* it does not read CDR's (I had immediate success with a CDRW), but //the mutated dvd-reader can be replaced with some extra modifications. // //So far it looks perfectly usable, but not as your main patch development //machine. // // j#|@ // // //_______________________________________________ //PD-list mailing list //PD-list@iem.kug.ac.at //http://iem.kug.ac.at/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pd-list // //
it is a good linux box. audio card is comparable to a slightly disabled
sblive [though
pumped for M$ EAX]. though as johannes notes, an external usb snd-card is
the way to
go. take the case off and you have a rackmountable 733+MHZ dvd playing PC
with a
great GL capable [GEM] card [once i can get hw accelleration wking]
+whatever hdd for
$EU200. seems to be a 64mb ram limit [unless happy about soldering in new
ram] and
haven't worked out the tvout to vga thing yet.
I wouldn't remove the case, it's an integrated wind-tunnel design. It can become unstable if the wind-tunnel is removed. But it looks like it almost fits in 2 rack units by just putting it on a rackshelf in its case.
checking linux for ps2 when they get around to sending me the dev kit.
AFAIK the PlayStation linux is using virtualized hardware, and its system architecture is only powerfull when you make use of its specific capabilities (emotion engine processor). The Xbox is almost completely generic (but partially mutated) hardware. Keep us posted about how the PS2 works out!
j#|@