It has been revealed today that the Sony PlayStation 4 next-generation games console operating system uses FreeBSD 9.0, a free Unix-like operating system which has descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX.
The new Sony PlayStation 4 operating system details have been discovered via a couple of leaked screens of the GRUB 2.0 interface on the second-generation PlayStation 4 development kit.
However it has not been confirmed by Sony that their new PlayStation 4 console does include FreeBSD 9.0 at the present time, and the screenshots could have been faked. However the new Sony PlayStation 4 using FreeBSD 9.0 follows on from the PlayStation 3 operating system called CellOS which has always been rumored to have been based on FreeBSD as well.
As explained by Phoronix at the current time FreeBSD doesn’t have an official Radeon graphics driver for the operating system and the open source driver which is available is probably not up to the job of handling the tasks the new next-generation Sony PlayStation 4 console will require. So it seems that Sony and AMD have been working together to create a new Sony PlayStation 4 specific graphics driver. Phoronix explains:
“It’s been exposed that the operating system powering the PlayStation 4 is Orbis OS, which is a Sony spin of FreeBSD 9.0. It’s not a huge surprise FreeBSD is being used over Linux, in part due to the more liberal licensing. The PlayStation 4 is x86_64 based now rather than Cell-based, which makes it easier to use FreeBSD.”
For more information and screenshots revealing the new Sony PlayStation 4 operating system and its links with FreeBSD jump over to the VG Leaks website.
Source: Register : VGLeaks : Hot Hardware
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