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Using video memory on PS3 e.g. as SWAP?

DISCUSSION René Rebe 4 participants 4 messages Jul 29, 2007 – Jul 31, 2007

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René Rebe

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Hi all,

looking at the PS3 as one of the few PowerPC workstation options the RAM is obviously quite limitted with just 256MB. I wonder if the 256MB of video memory can be mapped or at least be used as super-fast SWAP?

Or are there news regarding accessing the video chip from Linux beside the unaccelerated frame-buffer?

Regards,

=2D-=20
Ren=E9 Rebe - ExactCODE GmbH - Europe, Germany, Berlin
http://exactcode.de | http://t2-project.org | http://rene.rebe.name

#1 lore raw
Quoted 8 lines · René Rebe

Hi all,

looking at the PS3 as one of the few PowerPC workstation options the RAM is obviously quite limitted with just 256MB. I wonder if the 256MB of video memory can be mapped or at least be used as super-fast SWAP?

Or are there news regarding accessing the video chip from Linux beside the unaccelerated frame-buffer?

I can be mapped, and accessed directly with MMIO. Some folks did a driver for that, not sure where about. It's fairly slow though. The problem is that MMIO accesses to VRAM aren't fast. DMAs are supposed to be but then, we don't have access to those.

Cheers,
Ben

#2 lore raw
In reply to René Rebe

Am Sunday 29 July 2007 19:04 schrieb Ren=E9 Rebe:

Quoted 5 lines

Hi all,

looking at the PS3 as one of the few PowerPC workstation options the RAM is obviously quite limitted with just 256MB. I wonder if the 256MB of video memory can be mapped or at least be used as super-fast SWAP?

look here:
http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=3D8267

but the write speed is much slower than disk.

Quoted 4 lines

Or are there news regarding accessing the video chip from Linux beside the unaccelerated frame-buffer?

Regards,

=2D-=20
"The enemy commits atrocities knowingly; if we make unfortunate mistakes, =
it=20
is involuntary."
Lord Arthur Ponsonby, "Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the Firs=
t=20
World War", 1928

#3 lore raw
In reply to René Rebe
Quoted 3 lines · =EF=BF=BD

Hi all,
=20
looking at the PS3 as one of the few PowerPC workstation options the RA=

M

Quoted 1 line

is obviously quite limitted with just 256MB.=20

Can I recommend in the future you send this kind of PS3 specific inquiry = to
the cbe-oss-dev mailing list?

[email protected]
https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/cbe-oss-dev

Quoted 2 lines

I wonder if the 256MB of
video memory can be mapped or at least be used as super-fast SWAP?

As Marc mentioned, some work was done using unsupported functionality of the current hypervisor. There is no assurance it will continue to work with future system software updates.

Quoted 2 lines

Or are there news regarding accessing the video chip from Linux beside the unaccelerated frame-buffer?

We plan to improve Linux graphics support, but we have not announced any specifics. The changes may make the above mentioned driver no longer wor= k.

-Geoff