Nemo Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 Sony Studies Commercial PlayStation 3 Supercomputing Grid Sony is mulling over the idea of offering product discounts and other incentives to entice PlayStation 3 users into forming a supercomputing grid that could be leased to businesses. Companies, particularly in the medical industry, have approached Sony with the idea after reading about PlayStation 3 owners participation in the nonprofit Folding@home, a Stanford University project that uses home computers to form a supercomputing grid for biomedical research. The project is focused on understanding the causes of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other deadly diseases. For supercomputing, PS3s are the creme de la crme because they pack so much more processing power than the average PC -- 30 times more, according to Sony. The reason is they use IBM's powerful Cell processor. Definitely an interesting concept. The PS3 has already made a huge contribution to the Folding@Home project. I definitely encourage any of you members that have the PS3 to check out the Folding@Home PS3 project and help out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardnrg Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 Sony Playstation becomes Cyberdyne Systems lol... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewr05 Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 (edited) A very good idea would be to release a cheaper version of the PS3 (it wouldn't be a Playstation though) that does NOT have the blu-ray player and has a proprietary OS that only runs distributive computing programs. That way people wouldn't try to hack it to play games, so technically it would be just the CELL processor for complex computing task but it wouldn't (or couldn't) be made to play video games. or A better solution would be to do the same thing but redesign the cooling for 24/7 100% cpu load and not even compare or even imply that it has anything to do with the PS3. And just market it to companies or other places that would need clustered computer power... Edited April 12, 2007 by Andrewr05 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verran Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 A very good idea would be to release a cheaper version of the PS3 (it wouldn't be a Playstation though) that does NOT have the blu-ray player and has a proprietary OS that only runs distributive computing programs. That way people wouldn't try to hack it to play games, so technically it would be just the CELL processor for complex computing task but it wouldn't (or couldn't) be made to play video games. or A better solution would be to do the same thing but redesign the cooling for 24/7 100% cpu load and not even compare or even imply that it has anything to do with the PS3. And just market it to companies or other places that would need clustered computer power... Basically, that means just selling the cell processor itself right? I mean you could order a chili-dog with the works minus ketchup, onions, cheese, chili, and relish, but wouldn't you rather just order a hot dog? I think they've mentioned selling the Cell by itself before, haven't they? I can see Sony not being very excited about it (cutting into PS3 sales and all), but I bet IBM's working on it. They're the ones who actually make the Cell, aren't they? With the right software developers, the cell could perform VERY well I'd think. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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