_xeno_'s Journal: PS3 JavaScript Faster than IE7? Really?

You may have recently heard the story that a PS3 developer is claiming that the JavaScript in the PS3 is now "up to IE7 standards."

Sadly for Sony, this is something that sort of falls into the "testable" category. The JavaScript performance for the PS3 can be measured by a benchmark such as SunSpider.

Well, actually, no. bitops-bitwise-and causes a JavaScript error. The test is a loop that just does a bitwise and 600,000 times. The fact that the PS3 browser can't do a bitwise "and" many times in a row is just baffling, but there you have it.

controlflow-recursive actually crashes the console. Apparently you can't recurse too far in the PS3's JavaScript implementation.

Finally, string-base64 fails. Given the complete lack of debugging utilities for the PS3's browser, I have no idea why.

So I ran a local copy of SunSpider with those three tests removed. The final score is 98 seconds. Keep in mind that this figure is missing three tests.

That gives the following list of Browsers That Have Faster JavaScript Support Than The PS3 Browser:

• Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox on any computer I have access to. (Not surprising.)
• IE7 on an Intel Core2 Duo desktop.
• IE7 on a 2-year old Intel Core Duo laptop.
• IE7 on a 4-year old 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 laptop - after skipping the same set of tests the PS3 skipped. (Incidentally, the PS3 processor is clocked at 3.2GHz.) IE7 does terrible at the "string-base64" test, so skipping it really helps its score.
• The Opera browser on the Nintendo Wii. (It scored about 50 seconds - but that's all tests.)
• The Safari browser on a second generation iPod Touch. Well, after removing the three tests that the PS3 couldn't do, otherwise they match fairly well.

So, there you have it: Sony's PS3, about as powerful as a second generation iPod Touch. At least when it comes to their browser.