Filed under: Hardware, OS, Software, Hacks
OSX on an Xbox?
Our sister blog Joystiq has an interesting post on an Xbox modder community possibly being able to run OSX on the highly-anticipated Xbox 360, due out this fall. Since the Xbox 360 will have a tri-core 3 Ghz G5 chip in it, (so maybe we'll see 3 Ghz PowerMacs this fall too?) modders are teething at the potential of getting it to run OSX. Besides the Mac mini, I guess that'd be one of the cheapest (and smallest) Macs to be had out on the open market.It sounds interesting, since I grew up modding and messing around with PC hardware, but since I saw the light and switched I've been a big believer in Apple's philosophy of optimizing and marrying their software to the hardware it runs on. Either way, check out Joystiq's post and the Xbox community. It's definitely an intriguing bit read.
[Note: to clear up any confusion, this post's accompanying image is a photoshop I made, and a bad one at that. The Xbox 360 does not have an Apple logo on it.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gregory Wostrel said 8:14PM on 8-27-2005
Gee, I think you did a pretty good job placing the Apple logo on the XBox. Looks sweet that way! :-P If it works to run OSX on it, I might have to buy one myself.
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Wheels said 8:59PM on 8-27-2005
Oh, that's gotta get ole Billie's goat (Billie Goat?) - but after all, it is an Xbox!
Ahh, a 3.0ghz Mac before the Intel phase in...wouldn't that be nice!
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Chris L W said 9:00PM on 8-27-2005
But, David, the Apple logo looks sooooooooooo cool on that XBox 360!! It's a worthy fantasy!
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Russ E. said 11:30PM on 8-27-2005
It would be nice since they will be selling custom skins for the XBox 360 if you could place the Apple logo on it. I would like it if my 360 had the Apple logo on it... it would feel twice as expensive and uber-cool.
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Gotecki said 4:37AM on 8-28-2005
the Xbox360 doesn't have a "G5". It's not a G5. It has a Triple core PowerPC which is not the same as "G5" (which is a technology, involving Hypertransport bus, Altivec Vector unit etc, not just a CPU). The combined power of the triple core is comparable to a 1.8GHz SP Power Mac G5. PowerPC is a big family of CPUs, they have different computational power, different price, and clock frequency is just marketing stuff.
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John Green said 12:53PM on 8-28-2005
Never mind running Mac OS on an Xbox... what's the likelihood, with a little mod, of being able to run Xbox 360 games on a Mac ? Well you never know....
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Brian Shiau said 2:00PM on 8-28-2005
Also remember that the triple core PowerPC chip in the Xbox360 is a crippled version compared to that which is necessary to run Macs. Since gaming consoles do not need many of the features necessary in modern day computers, such as multi-tasking, the chip is stripped down to focus on only what gaming needs. The greater performance in this chip comes from the optimized design for gaming at the cost of capabilities for non-gaming applications.
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Chris said 3:22PM on 9-10-2005
This entire OS X on new XBox 360 is very interesting. I have just read a number of sites, pages, and there is lots of heated debate on if it will or will not work.
1./ we now run a Free BSD substructure. (UNIX)
This HAS BEEN PORTED to work on like almost every processor platform.
so why cant it work on the new XBox 360. So long as someone makes a boot kernal and drivers for it??
2./ Microsoft hardware blocking this ability. Would it be in Mircorosofts BEST interest to put extra money and time into blocking the ability of a device they (make money) on for other than intened usage, and to produce something which can run the competitions software.....
Duh... not smart to block. If its Microsoft they they will release the Kernal and drivers themselves, and chash in on an inexpensive Mac licenced by Microsoft.
IT can go on forever.
Mac now does Intel Inside, and can port programs from PPC to Intel in minutes. With this in mind and with the fabled UNIX core I truely believe we WILL see a inexpensive XBox 360 Macintosh OS X device in our near future.
FreeBSD is the best thing Mac could have done we will see if Intel is the next best or worst. But that is another story right ;-)
Cheers
Chris
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