Hacked xbox 360 would be a good cruncher, right?
 

I WAS planning on buying a hacked xbox 360 to run DC on, but a comment in another forum has me thinking twice about it. I've gotta ask:

What would 3 3.2GHz PowerPC chips with 1MB of cache each be good for?

[QUOTE=jasong]What would 3 3.2GHz PowerPC chips with 1MB of cache each be good for?[/QUOTE]I dunno - Playing video games, maybe?

[QUOTE=jasong]I WAS planning on buying a hacked xbox 360 to run DC on, but a comment in another forum has me thinking twice about it. I've gotta ask:

What would 3 3.2GHz PowerPC chips with 1MB of cache each be good for?[/QUOTE]

I assume you have a linux OS running on it. Can you install gcc? If so, then you can do quite a bit. GMP-ECM is one option. I am assisting the SoB and RieselSieve projects with a port of proth_sieve to the G5. IIUC the xbox uses 64-bit CPUs. If so, that would make it a good box for these things.

What OS would it be using ? Linux ?

A possible alternative

There may be a low cost XBOX 360 developers kit released soon.
[url]http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30477[/url]


XNA Studio and Framework

..XNA Studio enables all developers -- from major development studios to the two guys moonlighting on a dream project in their garage or dorm room -- to create games...

[url]http://www.betanews.com/article/MS_Looks_to_Spur_360_Development/1142888116[/url]

[QUOTE=jasong]I WAS planning on buying a hacked xbox 360 to run DC on, but a comment in another forum has me thinking twice about it. I've gotta ask:

What would 3 3.2GHz PowerPC chips with 1MB of cache each be good for?[/QUOTE]

Where did you see the hacked XBOX 360? I haven't heard about any hacks for it yet that allow you to run your own code, only for playing copied games.

I'm waiting, with great interest, for the ability to run Linux on the XBOX 360. It would make a very good proth or riesel sieving box. The current client sieves at about 450kp/sec on a 2GHz Athlon XP (32-bit) for the 8k SoB dat file. The latest version of proth_sieve for G5 PPC (by Rogue and myself) currently gets 1100kp/sec on a 2.5GHz G5. So I reckon 3 3GHz cores could get close to 4000kp/s, for about 400 UKP.

[QUOTE=ewmayer]I dunno - Playing video games, maybe?[/QUOTE]

:lol:

your also forgetting something major -_-
its got 3 cores and there is a team free60.org there ripping down 2 xboxes and have got a lot of info its just a matter of time till they get a hole or bug in the xbox 360 to crack it.

I apologize for getting anyone's hopes up. I had been reading over in an xbox hacking forum and confused the xbox with the xbox 360.

I apologize.:no:

Rather than pay £400UKP/GBP. X360 core console is selling secondhand at CEX for £200. This makes it a very attractive price/performance ratio.

Unfortunately despite recent news of X360 "hack" it was only a firmware mod to the DVD drive which allows copies of the officially signed games to run. Microsoft are not panicing as there are easy ways to close this loophole in my opinion such as firmware checksumming.

Worse, this hack only helps pirates and those wanting to use backups of disks rather than originals.

In particular as has been pointed out, the so-called X360 hacks DO NOT PERMIT EXECUTION OF ARBITRARY THIRD PARTY UNSIGNED CODE.

Now if they could get past that and install linux and some math/prime/factoring software that would be lovely. But don't hold your breath as it is a custom cpu and includes more sophisticated DRM technology than the original xbox.

We already know that the playstation 3 will run on linux.
Do you think it will be possible to use it as a cruncher?

[QUOTE=victor]We already know that the playstation 3 will run on linux.
Do you think it will be possible to use it as a cruncher?[/QUOTE]

Yes, and yes ;-)

That is why I intend to buy one.

Unfortunately the launch of PS3 has been put back until November.

It will not be totally stunning at LL testing but cell is an interesting architecture for programmers to play with.

My own wish and suggestion to Sony is to make their console more future proof than x360 by making a module slot to later insert an ADDITIONAL cell processor. eg upgrade with second cell (for which processors are designed to talk) would give platform longer life, and enable to suddenly jump past x360 in processing power if they are launched as similar power.

The delay in launch makes it possible to consider such things but I don't know if they would do it or not.