The PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3, the thing that is legendary for its time... as a timebomb depending on the model and an experimental architure. Pretty nice, right?

That's what I think of it, a neat, somewhat challenging console to work with in terms of development, both in Linux environments and native GameOS. GabeN and othe developers complained about the console requiering a re-optimization of titles as well as having to make it as efficient as possible

The console uses a custom PowerPC architecture CPU under the name of CELL/B.E, running @ a staggering 3.2 GHz. for the time of 2006, but this means code must be optimized to CELL's own coding, the console as uses a custom GPU called the RSX, which is known for its infamous failure rate

Not the NEC/TOKIN, the RSX. That's been confirmed as one of the common, but not the main cause of YLOD, the PS3, as well as the early 360's, are plagued by the solder-curse, where companies like TSMC used cheap lead-free solder for chips which caused the epidemic on GPU's and all the way to the Mac. This basically means you can only jsut delay the death of the processor or GPU unless you franken-mod it with 65nm or the 40nm RSX as those tend to use much better solder for the main chip and for the board

I own a PHAT PlayStation 3 model, unfortunately I played a bad gamble in terms of how reliable it is and I've gotten the worst model, the CECHH, known for it's bad cooling when compared to the CECHG. The model uses much smaller cooling fans and radiators, which is the main cause. This console is on an older Firmware, so I would love to CFW it, but I don't want to get rid of its value as it has it's original box

Since it's on it's original firmware, I can install OtherOS, which is basically Linux. However, my harddrive is unable to be formatted correctly by the console and just wipes everything, it has the Slim model harddrive, so there's unfortunately not much I can do

I love the original PS3 and it's bulky design, the slims are great, but I don't see the charm in them as I do with the humongous one. I've been planning on playing a few japanese titles I own since the PS3 like the PSP is region-free thanks to developers not really focusing on region-locking their games