Hacking Mathieulth unlocks 7th SPU (PS3)

[Nobunaga]

Mathieulth responding on whether this can be used in conjuction with Graf_Chokolo's 3.41 linux install.

Mathieulh
Yes you just need to use Update Manager to write 0x07 to 0x48C30 on the syscon eeprom and reboot. Write 0x06 to restore.

 

[FAST6191]

Could someone clarify this or correct me if I misunderstood

The cell chip has 8 SPUs, Sony in the PS3 only use/allow 7 though (helped and maybe still does in making the percentage yield of cell processors higher; a common enough technique in semiconductors- see why overclocking/unlocking works as well as it does), in software or more accurately in the old otherOS/linux mode this was reduced to 6 SPUs with one being hidden/taken for background menu, security and the like. This hack then restores the 7th SPU for linux/otherOS mode (or indeed what is called that mode these days given all the recent hacking work).

 

[redact]

Could someone clarify this or correct me if I misunderstood

The cell chip has 8 SPUs, Sony in the PS3 only use/allow 7 though (helped and maybe still does in making the percentage yield of cell processors higher; a common enough technique in semiconductors- see why overclocking/unlocking works as well as it does), in software or more accurately in the old otherOS/linux mode this was reduced to 6 SPUs with one being hidden/taken for background menu, security and the like. This hack then restores the 7th SPU for linux/otherOS mode (or indeed what is called that mode these days given all the recent hacking work).

i may be mis-understanding what you're asking but what i get from your post is that you are under the impression that the 7th (8th but 1st is core 0...) core was previously usable and is now unusable with the removal of otherOS but that is not the case
the 6th (7th) core has always been dedicated to security (then i beleive another one was used for xmb in-game though i may be wrong on that) what this tweak does is re-enabled a factory disabled core that was never previously usable...

edit: clarified a bit (though not too well as i suck at explaining things)

 

[FAST6191]

Wow that is even better than I thought if so. I did think we might be doing something like starting at 0 for numbering.