Off they go, into the wild blue yonder... apparently for "research." Riiiiiiiight, research.
The gamer in me want to think that they're setting up for the First Annual Armed Forces Super Puzzle Fighter Tournament, but I guess they actually do some real work there too. According to Gizmodo, it seems that the USAF is wanting to fudge around with the Cell processor. "Assessment" is what they're saying. They're also looking to save a buck or two in the process of this assessment (really? the US government?), and the PlayStation 3 is the only item that gives them these materials at an "acceptable cost."
A government presolicitation notice lays it all out:
The Air Force Research Laboratory is conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors. The processors in the Sony PlayStation 3 are the only brand on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost.
Hushed Casket says that a machine codenamed "Roadrunner" was to be built in 2006, and it was slated to use Cell processors. I can't even imagine what a "Roadrunner" is, but I think it's kind of messed up that buying 300 40GB PS3 game consoles would be cheaper or easier than buying 300 Cell processors direct.
What do you think the Air Force is doing with all of these PS3s?
Hey, US Air Force. If you're not going to use those 300 SIXAXIS controllers, please send them to me.
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:
9:08 AM on 03.05.2008
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Though I expect at least a few tinfoil hat comments on this story
Duh!
Or play AC6 of course, wheeeeee!
RUNZ, 'CAUSE4 TEH ROBOTZ R COM-N!!!
Anyway, I agree with Dale: if they really are doing some sort of research on the cell processor, it would probably be cheaper to pick up 300 of them as opposed to buying 300 PS3s.
Or maybe the other equipment needed for hooking up the processors costs more than a PS3...so they can just re-work the console for their use.
Or maybe they plan to use them for gaming sessions to let soldiers blow off some steam, when they aren't being used for "research".
AC6 is 360 only so that would be fuckin hilarious!
The reason for the weird ps3 availability when it first came out (and I'd assume still today) was basically to stop research facilities from simply buying all of them. Afaik, they're the cheapest in terms of cost:power ratio for processing still. They were even back when they were $600.
I dunno what kind of time investment it is to rig them up to actually use the processing power efficiently, but they do run linux out of the box so I'd assume it can't be too terrible. Plus linux basically just accepts whatever the hell you feed it.
300 PS3's = 2100 Cell Processors
2100*70$ a piece (estimate) = 147,000$
300 PS3's * 400$ a piece = 120,000$
Looks like a deal to me, but I may be wrong on the price, anyone have a more accurate figure?
I'm going to agree with CaffeinePowered. These are most certainly destined for based rec rooms. I know a couple people in the military, and apparently base rec rooms are consistently stocked with TVs, arcade machines, pool tables, game consoles, laptops, and other such devices.
But then, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of these found their way into rec rooms.
Sorry to sound like a PS3 ad, but the Cell isn't just a gaming chip.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=525849&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490
Command must have ordered the PS3s to stop the airmen getting bored and doing the stuff in the above link.
.... taladega rulez :)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/28/ps3s_put_to_use_simulating_blackholes/
Rather than buying individual Cell chips and building a system, the PS3 systems are ready to go right out of the box after loading Linux. The Cell processor has a very efficient floating point processor, essentially a general purpose Power PC and 8 generalized FPs. The through put of a single Cell is way beyond a x86 chip. What else do you guys want to know?
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