PlayStation 3 tackles world ills

[motz]

An interesting article has appeared on BBC News. Apparently, the PS3 is so powerful, it will be used for medical studies!


The spare processing power of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be harnessed by scientists trying to understand the cause of diseases like Alzheimer's.

Sony has teamed up with US biologists who already run the distributed computing project, folding@home (FAH).
The project harnesses the capacity of thousands of PCs to examine how the shape of proteins, critical to most biological functions, affect disease.
FAH say a network of PS3's will allow performance similar to supercomputers.
With 10,000 machines joined together the researchers calculate they should be able to do a thousand trillion calculations per second.
If that was achieved it would be nearly four times as fast as the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM's BlueGene/L System, capable of 280.6 trillion calculations per second.
The PS3 cell specs are as follows:

256 billion calculations per second
2.5MB of on-chip memory
Able to shuttle data to and from off-chip memory at speeds up to 100 gigabytes per second,
234 million transistors
More via BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5287254.stm)

[NoQuarter]

remindes me of other clustering projects involving xbox's and also ps2'2.There are also several cluster projects on college campuses,one I believe used i-books.

Hopefully the first protein they study is the one that causes madcow disease or CJD in humans.

[Accordion]

im guessing they want to use the cell processor rather than 10000 PS3s

[DPyro]

They said something like this about the PS2 and look how that turned out.

[NoQuarter]

I don't think the results of those other cluster projects are too publicized,I guess you just gotta know where to look.
How did that ps2 cluster project turn out $n!per?
This brings to mind 4 possibilities for the ps3
1. the ps3 includes cluster software on it's linux system(not likely)
2.they plan on modding them to cluster(also not very likely)
3.you can actually install software to the ps3 such as the software needed for clustering!Which would mean we have more control over our system.
4.sony releases propietary software to do this(just like the RTE for ps2):(

only thing is if sony releases proprietary software to do this,which in my opinion would be very uncool and contrary to the concept of using linux on their box.

after all sony did say it was a computer,we should be able to configure our computers to behave the way we want!!!

If it's got linux on it they have to release the source for ps3 linux right?
At least for the modified kernel it'll be using,which opens the door for homebrew and open source apps on the ps3.

[cloud_952]

Wait, wait.. so you're telling me that the reason why there's going to be a shortage of PS3s, and the reason why I'm going to have to fight hobos in the bitter cold to get one instead of being able to reserve it is because they're using 10,000 for this?! O_O

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!

[NoQuarter]

Yeah,sounds like a potential market controlled shortage huh?
Maybe not though if it's only 10,000.

[Accordion]

simple ad, nothing more

yes it is possible scientists will use the Cell processors in there work, but we will never see 10,000 PS3s locked up in a research center

[NoQuarter]

There are clusters close to or of that size already in existence

[Accordion]

but not of consoles, and definately not using consoles for uses such as this

[Video_freak]

Wow, Sony is probably going to sell each unit to them over the price it costs to make them, so they make some profit (since they won't be buying games....or will they :D).

[NoQuarter]

I'm sure they cut some kind of profitable deal,seems like a bit much for a PR stunt.
It does seem like an attempt to back Ken Kuratagi's claim of the PS3 being a computer.

[Video_freak]

Well if it's a computer, I want to run Linux on it. Not "PS3 Linux", just Linux. :)

[NoQuarter]

Amen to that!!!!!!!

[jerrt]

Yeah,sounds like a potential market controlled shortage huh?
Maybe not though if it's only 10,000.

I don't think they are going to hold units. i think it is software that will either ship with the ps3, or they will allow to download through the online service, that will allow ps3's that are on but not actively running any games or video to be used to do calculations. i'm really excited and i can't wait till i get my ps3.

[NoQuarter]

Does any body remember SETI and the download to help that program search radio signals?
Guess what, that was a disaster!!!!
The thing got hacked and some people got free supercomputing over the internet by distibuting trojanized versions of the program..
Think again whether this is what you want on your PS3!!!!!!!
Not me buddy,I like to own my own processor computing time whether I choose to use it or not.
I especially don't want some damn exploit like that waiting to happen on my machine.
Granted no machine is secure,but I'm not going to help some people do it.
The SETI program did the same thing with the program running during your free cycles.

I'm with video freak,I want to be able choose what distro of linux I put on my PS3.I'm not sure how current linux development is with the cell processor though,need to do some checking now.

After checking the Cell wiki,it appears that sony is reserving one of the processing units of the cell processor for security use.If the firmware updates tell any story,it's that it will not be likely for us to put another OS on the PS3.

[stotheamuel]

Wait, wait.. so you're telling me that the reason why there's going to be a shortage of PS3s, and the reason why I'm going to have to fight hobos in the bitter cold to get one instead of being able to reserve it is because they're using 10,000 for this?! O_O

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!

youre right you should get a ps3...

screw studying to cure DISEASES

[NoQuarter]

I'm all for studying to cure diseases,just not with distributed supercomputing over the internet.Too many bad things could come from that.
I would much rather them do it in some warehouse somewhere or on a campus.

[jerrt]

I have been running f@h for a few years now and have had no problems with it. the program is only online when it has to set work order results and fetch new work units. so i don't mind much.