FreeBSD based Orbis OS powering Sony PS4

vgleaks has discovered that the new Sony Playstation 4 will be powered by Orbis OS, a modified version of FreeBSD 9.0. The modifications include new or optimised drivers for AMD’s 8-core CPU and Radeon GPU combination. This is not something that FreeBSD currently supports in the form of a Catalyst driver, and indicates that Sony and AMD are working on this together.

I guess that Sony decided to use FreeBSD as the engine due to the more liberal BSD license. Unlike the Cell-based PS3, the PS4 is x86-64 based which makes it easier to use FreeBSD.

I think Sony’s choice of FreeBSD is an excellent one.