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The US Air Force picks up 300 PS3s photo

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. 


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30 comments | showing # 1 to 30

CaffeinePowered's Avatar
CaffeinePowered at 03/05/2008 09:07
They're probably just going to stick them in the rec rooms at bases or on aircraft carriers.

Though I expect at least a few tinfoil hat comments on this story
Butmac's Avatar
Butmac at 03/05/2008 09:10
Folding@Home

Duh!
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 03/05/2008 09:17
They are going to use it to get the troops home by Fighting@Home.

Or play AC6 of course, wheeeeee!
pixelsword's Avatar
pixelsword at 03/05/2008 09:21
SKYNET!!!

RUNZ, 'CAUSE4 TEH ROBOTZ R COM-N!!!
Churchhills Dog's Avatar
Churchhills Dog at 03/05/2008 09:21
I'd be extremely curious as to how much they were charged for the units.
zombiekiller13's Avatar
zombiekiller13 at 03/05/2008 09:23
Remeber that rumor about Saddam buying a boatload of PS2s?

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".
Dale North's Avatar
Dale North at 03/05/2008 09:23
Fighting@Home... HAHAHAHA
Takeshi's Avatar
Takeshi at 03/05/2008 09:24
@Prof. Pew
AC6 is 360 only so that would be fuckin hilarious!
Log1c's Avatar
Log1c at 03/05/2008 09:26
It would be so much cheaper to buy 300 PS3s compared to 300 processors, in this case they just have to design software to run on the processor instead of designing all the hardware that goes along with it. Also it cuts down on the development time.
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 03/05/2008 09:34
I hear that Folding@Home project thing was successful on the PS3 so this seems only natural to me.
HarassmentPanda's Avatar
HarassmentPanda at 03/05/2008 09:35
They may be doing Linux + PS3 to develop some sort of software. Interesting and stupid.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 03/05/2008 09:39
That's interesting. They'll probably be playing some games too... I hope... what a waste if they don't at least play a couple games.
MaxVest's Avatar
MaxVest at 03/05/2008 09:44
300 lucky troops will be getting a copy of Spiderman 3 on Blu-ray!
twincannon's Avatar
twincannon at 03/05/2008 09:45
Um, they're probably going to actually use the processors.

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.
DeusPayne's Avatar
DeusPayne at 03/05/2008 09:49
Warhawk
Syn's Avatar
Syn at 03/05/2008 10:08
Let's see...
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?
emotoaster's Avatar
emotoaster at 03/05/2008 10:14
This is awesome and not to nitpick or anything but CaffeinePowered Air Foce doesn't use or control carriers.
infinity's Avatar
infinity at 03/05/2008 10:50
f-22 raptor flight simulator?
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 03/05/2008 11:04
@Syn: The PS3 doesn't have 7 Cell Processors. It has 1 Cell Processor, which itself has 7 active cores.

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.
WDot's Avatar
WDot at 03/05/2008 11:34
Each PS3 is basically a $400 server computer. That's a heckuva lot cheaper than buying the Cells, then the RAM, then the mobos, etc etc. Ever tried configuring server hardware on HP or Dell? Not cheap. The PS3 can do Folding @ Home better than a much more expensive PC, so it's unsurprising that people who want to do science and simulation would want to pick up PS3's.

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.
Corak's Avatar
Corak at 03/05/2008 12:00
If they aren't going into any rec rooms it sounds like they are assessing the use of the cell processor in a military system. Then based on the results, if favorable, they would go full scale and build a system from scratch. Because the PS3 can run linux right out of the box its most likely easy to adapt and get results from instead of building something from individual pieces.
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 03/05/2008 12:13
@Takeshi: AC6 has been confirmed for the PS3, I think.
Sam Spectre's Avatar
Sam Spectre at 03/05/2008 12:27
You know they're just preparing for a LAN tournament.
Mustin's Avatar
Mustin at 03/05/2008 15:26
Best caption evar.
Batthink's Avatar
Batthink at 03/05/2008 16:13
I know its not linked to PS3s, but this is US airman relevant;

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.
Eschatos's Avatar
Eschatos at 03/05/2008 16:21
Supercomputer time!
Quest's Avatar
Quest at 03/05/2008 18:09
US air force prefer a jap compagny vs a us compagny .... are they affraid of RROD of the 360 .... USA would be in a bad position in a war ... sir we have a problem ... RROD ... cannot launch the missiles ... yeah but we have more games then the PS3 loll

.... taladega rulez :)
interested's Avatar
interested at 03/05/2008 21:29
Playstation 3s are particularly useful in building large very cheap simulation networks. You can take the units and just network them together, loading on Linux, creating an instant super computer. Take a look at this system of 16 PS3s

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?
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 03/06/2008 19:56
They just want to check out Lair so they know what to expect in the upcoming dragon invasion.
Yashoki's Avatar
Yashoki at 06/10/2008 11:20
Necros smells
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