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US Army Linux CD turns Opteron into gaming machine on steroids

M

Macro2

Diamond Member
Linux CD turns Opteron PC into "gaming console on steroids"
Sep. 30, 2003

A new 64-bit Linux CD can instantly turn an AMD Opteron-equipped PC into the ultimate gaming console, according to Super Computer Inc. (SCI). The company has created a distribution of the popular America's Army multi-player strategy game on a bootable Linux CD, that it says was developed in partnership with AMD, nVidia, and the US Army. According to SCI, the GameStorm CD boots directly into a gaming-console-like environment that maximizes hardware access for the game software and cuts out legacy operating system overhead, resulting in the feeling of "a gaming console on steroids."

SCI says its GameStorm technology fits onto a single CD and essentially turns the PC into an embedded Linux based "console-like" gaming system. The Linux OS scans the hardware, loads a custom distribution of 64-bit embedded Linux, and then runs the game software. The experience for the end-user is fast and powerful game playing that boots in under one minute, without the usual overhead from the legacy operating systems traditionally used in the gaming industry, SCI claims.

"It feels like a gaming console on steroids and even allows for online access so you can connect to online game servers for multi-player action," said Jesper Jensen, CEO of Super Computer, Inc. "With a pure 64-bit environment and no overhead, SCI has created a powerful single-CD showcase for both AMD and GameStorm technology!"

SCI's first GameStorm title, America's Army, originally debuted on July 4, 2002, becoming one of the most popular games online, according to SCI. The Army has recorded more than 1.6 million registered user accounts with more than 1 million players completing basic training. Gamers have played more than 130 million missions and the average number of completed missions per day is 450,000.

"The fact that America's Army is available in 64-bit on the GameStorm CD allows gamers to get a taste of the next generation of gaming just by inserting a CD and powering up the computer," said Major Bret Wilson, Operations Officer for America's Army.

"With the AMD Athlon 64 processor and GameStorm technology, AMD is able to showcase a fully-integrated 64-bit environment that delivers performance and realism to the most demanding gamers," said Tim Wright, director, desktop marketing, AMD Computation Products Group. "AMD64 will revolutionize the gaming market by delivering immersive super-realistic environments."

Earlier this year, Super Computer Inc. unveiled what was claimed to be the world's first AMD Opteron processor-based gaming server cluster, featuring U.S. Army's "America's Army Game," at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Company Marketing Manager Jay Majumdar says America's Army on GameStorm will be distributed free by AMD with Opteron-equipped PCs, and that the company is now working on porting several more 32-bit and 64-bit games to the GameStorm platform.

Majumdar notes that Army recruiters will use the CD during recruiting events. "They can run the game on a floor model at Best Buy, and leave the hard drive untouched," he says.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3103154102.html
 
The Linux OS scans the hardware, loads a custom distribution of 64-bit embedded Linux, and then runs the game software. The experience for the end-user is fast and powerful game playing that boots in under one minute, without the usual overhead from the legacy operating systems traditionally used in the gaming industry, SCI claims.
Click to expand...


Sweet..


Although my WinXP boots in about 40 seconds... 😀

 
Pretty cool idea, but what about multitasking.. I know most of the times i'm playing a game, I will be downloading something in the background or have at least one thing running
 
Bootable Game CDs would probably be good on 32bit systems as well. It would be interesting to see this idea catch on.
 
Dont you also lose quite a bit of speed by running a game directly off of a CD instead of your hard drive?
 
sweet idea.

Now if we could get more games on Linux you could have a really streamlined system for gaming.
 
Actually, just the idea of a bootable OS-free game package is appealing for alot of games out there. Cut out the Windows bloatware altogether.
 
jfall "Pretty cool idea, but what about multitasking.. I know most of the times i'm playing a game, I will be downloading something in the background or have at least one thing running"

What you should realize is this was not intended to be a OS so that you may listen to music, surf net, download, mulitask, ect ... It's a video game built on top of a Linux OS that boots off the CD directly into the game. Just like a normal video game console does.

sandorski " Bootable Game CDs would probably be good on 32bit systems as well. It would be interesting to see this idea catch on."

Yeah this would be kick ass for 32bit systems as well.

jfall "Dont you also lose quite a bit of speed by running a game directly off of a CD instead of your hard drive?"

While that is true I doubt for some games it would be to much of a problem. They might even have a option to where you can save the game to a Hard Drive and run it like that, eh.

First I ever herd of this but it would be nice if all games become this.

--Idoxash
 
From what I understand, DirectX 10 is going to allow a variation of this, running a game off the CD. What is more intriguing with this though is the booting from the CD. I could see some potential problems with it though, new hardware, bugs in the game, or even the variety of hardware devices available could make such a system difficult to use. Unless, perhaps, the game is partially Installed to the harddrive prior to use, that way Patches or special device drivers could be added to the game and still maintain its' OS neutrality.

What would really be nifty is an OS that allowed "booting" off a disk while in the OS, kinda like a simultaneous Unloading of the OS and Loading of something else, to cut down on the Rebooting time. Err, something like that. 😀
 
"SCI says its GameStorm technology fits onto a single CD and essentially turns the PC into an embedded Linux based "console-like" gaming system.
The Linux OS scans the hardware, loads a custom distribution of 64-bit embedded Linux, and then runs the game software."

Sounds like the linux software and game is loaded onto a temporary space on your hard drive prior to use.
 
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