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Games Editor  Posts: 4193 Joined: 20 Dec 2005     | |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1751 Joined: 22 Oct 2008     | Oh, God, I can see the commercials now... "Sony: Solving the mysteries of the Universe since 2008." |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1094 Joined: 11 Oct 2008     | *Buy our new supercomputer PS3 clusters* Damn that would increase their sales by a lot... |
On the Record  Posts: 5958 Joined: 7 Feb 2008     | The PS3, it doesn't have many good games, but damn can it compute. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1850 Joined: 31 Oct 2007    |
As long as that computation requires a relatively low amount of memory. (fine print) |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 68 Joined: 6 Jun 2008     | There is going to be a single man in Hawaii who here's of this news and begins a crusade against PS3's because their computing of black hole data, in his mind, will create quantum black holes that will devour the Earth. Several lawsuits later the PS3 will be banned. Society will then come to the realization of it's own ineptitude and weep for the future... History channel show about how right my predictions are please. |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 497 Joined: 12 Jun 2008   | Nifty. It shows that some scientist was playing with his PS3 one night while mulling over the problem, wondering where he could get affordable yet very powerful processors. Also, it reminds me of the stories from a while back where you couldn't import the 'next-gen consoles' in the era of the PS2 and the original Xbox because the computers were too powerful or some such. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1584 Joined: 13 Oct 2008  | That's pretty interesting, although I really shouldn't be surprised that people are starting to use gaming consoles for other purposes. I'd like to see the technical specs of the cluster... |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1096 Joined: 22 Dec 2008  | PS3 is Skynet! Skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyneeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttt! |
On the Record  Posts: 5484 Joined: 13 Aug 2008   | Wasn't there a big hubbub about the PS2 letting terrorists launch nukes or something a while back? |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 592 Joined: 19 Nov 2008    | dear god. i have nothing to say. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1096 Joined: 22 Dec 2008 | PS3's pretty cool. In case it's a total flop on games (admit it, it kind of is), it can be the next supercomputer. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3385 Joined: 28 Jun 2008  |
... On another note. God, $5000 for one run? There are dashed my dreams of simulating realistic sex. Woe is me. |
BANNED  Posts: 2505 Joined: 19 Aug 2008  | wow, that will be one for the history books. I wonder if the professors ever play games on the PS3's when they aren't being used to solve the mysteries of the universe? User was banned for: Poll: Round 5 - Field of Four - (1) Turbine vs (1) Nintendo. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1844 Joined: 7 Jul 2008     | Congratulations. Now it can add "Science experiment" to its resume right under "movie...downloading machine" |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 105 Joined: 22 Dec 2008     |
^Very nice. Before we know it they'll actually make a black hole using all of these PS3s. Then how can I play MGS4? Haha |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1657 Joined: 15 Oct 2008   |
Yeah, the speculation rose when Sadam Huessin bought 12 PS2s. Edit: I like to see a picture of the PS3s to see if the stacked them cooly. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 730 Joined: 29 Feb 2008 | Ha another thing my PS3 can do that you Xbox cant.
No its not. |
IT Director  Posts: 1548 Joined: 13 Jun 2002   | Of course, since those PS3s aren't going to play any games, Sony lost money on the sales. The other unfortunate thing is that IBM has plans to roll out actual supercomputers using the Cell processors. If it's cheap enough to throw together some PS3s and get reasonably similar performance, this is bad news for them too.
The sad thing is that it's only a conspiracy theory away from saying Sony deliberately crippled the memory to make sure PS3s couldn't be more useful as non-gaming machines :P |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 406 Joined: 29 Nov 2007    |
The PS2, like most computer chips, is not allowed to be exported to the majority of middle-eastern regions, to limit technology outflow which is easily re-purposeable. The PS2's open architecture (like the PS3) makes it easy to re-purpose. The line given by the gov't was something like "preventing foreign national threats from acquiring and re-purposing...", the research papers gave that as an extreme edge case example, and the media picked and up and ran with it like morons running with scissors. RE: the topic, good to see someone's getting a real use out of the Cell processor. It's powerful, but the memory is too poor for heavy (non-gaming) computing; sticking a whole bunch of them in parallel results in low-end supercomputer architecture, just what university research teams are desperate for. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 83 Joined: 9 Oct 2008  | My school (University of Louisville) is purchasing several new supercomputer clusters. Among them is a 16 blade cluster consisting of 8 Cell processors per blade. They are also investing in 8 PS3s to use as both research clusters and for multimedia and multi-core programming classes. [/end plug for computer science department] |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 393 Joined: 7 Feb 2008    | Oh shit. More ammunition for the Sony fanboys. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1096 Joined: 22 Dec 2008 |
I can think of a few good ones, like little big planet, but how many exclusives are actually pretty good? Resistance 1/2 are good, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. EDIT: I don't have an Xbox. I'm a PC guy. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 730 Joined: 29 Feb 2008 |
I actually posted that o_o I thought I deleted it from my post. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1096 Joined: 22 Dec 2008 | Sorry, klc0100! You are absolutely right. |
On the Record  Posts: 6204 Joined: 10 Mar 2008   |
You damn right more ammo for us! *KABLOWEEE!#%@* This is pretty cool, consoles going into the mainstream, now the sub-stream. And soon the world as scientists shall build the ultimate, cancer-curing, super-computing, laser-pointing-ing...-ing, console! That plays games to! |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 4296 Joined: 20 Dec 2007  | Even scientists are trying penny pinching techniques in this shit economy now. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 393 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 |
Don't forget the fridge so you don't have to walk even a few steps to get a beer! |
On the Record Posts: 6204 Joined: 10 Mar 2008 |
Ha! That's child's play when you witness the new holo-beer the scientists will stuff in this baby! Whenever you want a beer, POOF, a virtual one comes up and makes your brain tingle with the sensation of alchohol! What are we talking about now? |
Press Junketeer Posts: 393 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 |
The Playstation 6? |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1850 Joined: 31 Oct 2007 |
One of the goals of most projects is to do it as cost efficiently as possible despite what economic climate we're in. Apparently they found this to be most efficient. Why are we talking about this when there's zombies to kill? |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1914 Joined: 9 Sep 2008  | Seeing how Nintendo wiped the floor with both Sony and Microsoft this gen, how about Sony and MS team up for the next one? Sony can manage the hardware, thus guaranteeing us a powerful gaming system that explodes infrequently enough to avoid massive internet outcry, and let Microsoft handle the software, games and the online content. |
BANNED  Posts: 12958 Joined: 30 Jan 2008 |
Thats not what I keep seeing. The mars landers budget was in several billions, and they weren't exactly that careful with it. User was banned for: Poll: What is your opinion on the Metal Gear Solid storylines?. (Permanent) |
Muckraker  Posts: 312 Joined: 16 Oct 2008 | I'm honored to see my alma mater mentioned by The Escapist. Sony WorkStation, anyone? |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2268 Joined: 10 Oct 2008  |
I'm still not sure they could stop Nintendo's "sell them old hardware with one new gimmick" routine. Though, Sony hardware with microsoft software would be pretty interesting. |
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PS3 Cluster Solves Black Hole Mystery
Researchers at the University of Alabama and University of Massachusetts have answered a question about the nature of black holes - not with the use of a supercomputer, but with the processing power of a cluster of 16 PS3s.
When the two research teams (in Huntsville, AL and Dartmouth, MA respectively) set out to run simulations testing theories about the speed at which black holes stopped vibrating after creation, they could have rented processor time from a supercomputer specifically designed for that sort of scientific calculations.
Instead, they used the Sony PlayStation 3 - 16 of them, to be precise.
The primary force behind the decision was financial, explained members of the teams - with research budgets tightening before the financial crash, scientists are frequently being asked to do more with less money. Dr. Lior Burko, a physicist and professor at UA Huntsville, said that the cost to rent a supercomputer for the time needed to run these simulations would have been about $5,000 - and that would just be a one-time use. While the PS3 cluster cost the team around $6,000 to put together, it can be reused for future research on this project and others to come.
Not every job would work well on the PS3 cluster, said Burko; these particular calculations were very processor-heavy but relatively light on RAM usage, which happened to suit the PS3 hardware nicely.
This comes as a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy sea of news for Sony amidst flagging hardware sales and lower-than-expected numbers for the holiday season: at least it'll have scientific research to fall back on if the gaming division ever goes under.
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