The PlayStation 3's Cell processor must really be something. The US government wants to use them, they're powering cutting-edge medical research, and now they're being used to simulate black hole physics.
Astrophysicist Gaurav Khanna has stacked 16 PlayStation 3 consoles together to form a supercomputer that is being used to simulate the activity of large black holes for the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts. Register Hardware says that these 16 stock PS3 systems, loaded with Linux and networked with a simple Gigabit Ethernet switch, give the same processing power as a 400-node supercomputer.
"Overall, a single PS3 performs better than the highest-end desktops available and compares to as many as 25 nodes of an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer," Khanna said.
You can hit up the PlayStation 3 Gravity Grid Web page for the full details.
What are they going to use the PS3 for next? Can they make more games with it too? Please?
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:47 AM on 03.05.2008
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The equivalent value of 16 PS3s can afford you far more processing power in conventional computers. At the latest SKU's prices, that's what, $8000?
Its a great number cruncher, a user/developer friendly games-console? Notsomuch.
The dev-kits are Rack-Mountable, they should have tried to score some of those. They weigh a ton tho.
Blargh. Government money well wasted.
I find it a little ridiculous, honestly. I sincerely doubt that shelling out the same sort of dough can't get you a supercomputer or two to do the same exact thing.
sweet
Good use of Soundgarden indeed.
"They should have asked the supercomputer-dtoid-community-experts. they know way more about supercomputers than scientists."
I'm no expert on the price of a super computer but something tells me that I'm sure they looked into it thorughly and this was the most cost effective choice while still being an effective use of processing power. Universities, unlike the government, have a more limited budget. If they can use these to further research into any field then whats the fn problem?
"They should have asked the supercomputer-dtoid-community-experts. they know way more about supercomputers than scientists."
And if you seriously think you can get a super computer for the same price as 16 PS3's you have no idea.
We just ordered a Dell poweredge server for twice the price of 16 PS3's and it would crumble and burn as a supercomputer.
Im kinda dissapointed.
imagine 16 xbox 360 ... with RROD ... ;)
o.0
Still cool though
Find me a desktop with the same or better specs for 600 bucks.
Seriously, if you can do that, I'll buy it. I need a new PC. It doesn't even have to have a monitor with it, to be fair since the PS3 doesn't have a free TV with it.
This article makes me want to get 16 PS3s so I can go simulate my own black holes.
my friend has a custom 8core system with a nvidia geForce 8600 GTS, 4g of ram, 800mhz bus, 500 sata hdd with directX n all, and still doesn't number crunch folding@home as fast as the ps3, (5 hour difference). Yea it might run Crysis better cuz of DirectX, but CoD4 still looks better and sharper in the PS3 viewed in a 40" 1080p Samsung LCDTV. the PS3 was released late 2006, its early 2008 just to take note.
So to go back to the OP title, for $400 you cannot get a high performance machine anywhere cept the PS3 and a RRoD360.
Reminds me of that supercomputer that was made up of a few hundred Macs (!) Why not just get a bunch of POWER boards together? Well, I guess if Apple is going to sponsor the machine it makes sense, but that's not what's going on with the PS3. :)