And, he can watch eight Blu-Ray videos at the same time! Sweet!
Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with a Cluster of Eight PlayStation 3s
Suffering from its exorbitant price point and a dearth of titles, Sony’s PlayStation 3 isn’t exactly the most popular gaming platform on the block. But while the console flounders in the commercial space, the PS3 may be finding a new calling in the realm of science and research.
Right now, a cluster of eight interlinked PS3s is busy solving a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star.
As the architect of this research, Dr. Gaurav Khanna is employing his so-called “gravity grid” of PS3s to help measure these theoretical gravity waves — ripples in space-time that travel at the speed of light — that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity predicted would emerge when such an event takes place.
It turns out that the PS3 is ideal for doing precisely the kind of heavy computational lifting Khanna requires for his project, and the fact that it’s a relatively open platform makes programming scientific applications feasible.
He also says that the console’s Cell processor, co-developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba, can deliver massive amounts of power, comparable even to that of a supercomputer — if you know how to optimize code and have a few extra consoles lying around that you can string together.
that’s so COOL.
That is just super-geeky cool….
I’ll sell them mine.
PM me Gaurav.
Narly.
He’ll be using it for Folding @ Home to further advance his team.
Some people are really dedicated to the cause.
That should save Sony….as long as they don’t root kit him!
“…if you know how to optimize code…”
Presumably this major limitation is why Micro$oft and Apple are not mentioned in this article.
Can it still be used to play games?
Could a regular gamer connect multiple units together, in parallel, to have a “super computer” game machine?
That’d be super cool and, I imagine, popular with that crowd who seem to have no problem dropping big bucks on their hardware.
This is the proper place for the Cell processor: An environment where code can be customized for that architecture.
The desktop space (Windows, OS X, Linux) nor the gaming space (where companies write as much common code as possible) line up with how to properly develop for the Cell.
I’m sure a passel of PS3’s are still cheaper than a Cell reference development board. The Slashdot crowd points out that the game OS is running on one of the Cell cores as a hypervisor and that Linux and the research software are running on the other six. The main drawback to the PS3 is it really only has a fairly small amount of system RAM. It might not be suited for some computing problems because of that.
Very entertaining.
So, what are the failings of the PS3 as a game machine, IF it stomps other machines to do such a thing?
#10. said, “The main drawback to the PS3 is it really only has a fairly small amount of system RAM”, which I agree, is a problem for young physicists who cannot optimize their process code to manage memory. Whatever I give physicists, they soon use it up. Mathematician are rather cleverer in this regard. But you have made a very good point.
#11,
Pure speculation on my part, as I am not a game developer.
But the ps3 segments the memory into 256 for the system and 256 for the video. On the xbox, there is just one big 512 meg memory space.
For game rendering that results in a situation where the developers have to move textures and models back and forth on the ps3 while they dont have to do that on the xbox. There are a number of games where it is really apparent…
Oblivion comes to mind. The xbox textures are clearly higher resolution than they are on the ps3. The last version of madden had some differecent between platforms as well. Again with the texture thing and the xbox madden runs at 60fps while the ps3 version runs at 30fps. I suspect it has nothing to do with the cpu speed at that point. It is that the ps3 is having to move hunks of memory around the system, while the xbox does not. So the ps3 may well have a faster processor, but they are using it to move memory around the system…
But it is more than that as well. Xbox live is very cool. You could buy an xbox and sample games for a good long time before you would need to actually buy a game. Once you do buy a game, the successful ones anyway, they ususally have extra content that is free after a couple of months. Microsoft is way way way ahead of both nintendo and sony on that front. Also, as anyone who watches the video game market knows, Microsoft has a Halo effect as well.
And now that the Wii fad has worn off (in the US at least) the xbox is now outselling the wii nearly 2 to 1, and the ps3 like 10 to 1 and there are roughly 2 big xbox software releases a month from now until next summer, I would say the xbox is now the definitive ‘winner’ of this generation of console.
Have a little pride. The US actually won something. We now pwn the worldwide video game market. Good news is so rare now days.
Here in Brazil, Unicamp already use a 12 PS3 in a cluster using Linux to research some sort of atomic behavior (?) … They say is cheaper and more estable than other options.
There is a link with more information (in portuguese) and pictures.
http://tinyurl.com/2yq7bz
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
Funny people mention that this “scientific” use of PS3 will save the platform for Sony. when it’s exactly the opposite that will happen. Remember Sony sells these puppies at a small loss (or nearly that) hoping to recoup in games. Not much games being played on these racked PS3s.
#13
As long as it is unable to conquer Japan M$ will never own the world.
High res is stupid…
TV’s only run about 320×200…IF you did that on a computer you could run Color depth at MAX, AA, and everything else at the cards FULLEST abilities.
EVEN with HIGH RES, on a TFT/plasma/monitor(im at 1280×1040) You SHOULD be able to run it in basic MODES… LOTS of dots, and not much special.
WHy in the world do you want to run an image in a game at SUPER HIGH RES…
Lets go back to half life 1…MADE in 1998(?) do you THINk that many could run it at 1024×760?? NOPE… ON a 16 MEG video card and DIALUP net… NOPE… AND your TV CANT EITHER…ANd you THINK a TFT/PLASMA CAN???
#16,
You have a point. The Japanese gamers think the xbox games are too hard, and a pro gamer league just had their world championship and the US team stomped all over the South Korean team, it wasn’t even competitive.
So yeah, so what if Americans tend to live in their moms basements now days, WE ARE NUMBER ONE at something again.
Everybody seems to have forgotten that Sony specifically designed the PS3 with that use in mind. They discussed it during the early product announcements.
If he PS3 hit the market when it was supposed to, it quite possibly could have aquired a larger base of competent programmers. Their problems getting that system working has had profound effects for the future of Sony.
It’s like they called for a “hail Mary” pass and then they didn’t catch the ball – repeatedly. Had they caught the pass and made the yardage it might not have given them the game but it would have sure put them into a safe lead.
#12, edwinrogers, Mathematician are rather cleverer in this regard.
Yes, actuaries fit a 100 lbs. of potatoes in a 5 lb. sack. In the dark ages they had to work with billions (or 100s of billions) of numbers on a System/360 with a whopping 32 or 64k core memory… What fun!
#18
“The Japanese gamers think the xbox games are too hard,”
Nope, the Xbox games are just the same thing all over. The same FPS games OVER and Over and Over, the same EA football, baseball, hockey games.
Any bets on how long before the PS3 is on the munitions list???
19,
The main problem Sony had, was “PLAYING LIKE MS”
CLOSe the system,
LOCK the system,
ANTI HACK the system,
ANY Piece of software MUST go threw the MAKER of the hardware.
THEn add in a ONLINE world, and interface, that was ALREADY up with the xbox(not the 360)…And sony was playing CATCH UP.
With MS, they already had the ONLINE world, and MANY software developers making software for the Xbox…
Its a wonder sony, has NOT jumped in and opened the WHOLE box and let ANY programmer PROGRAM it.
Nice to see someone finally figuring out a use for the PoS3…
If I could have a FULLY updatable audio/video card for Future drivers and Future controllers…
Make an OS for GAMES and internet.
WHY are the consoles so popular with Corps and game makers…
Forget the idea that sony/MS OWN the hardware, and control the distribution of software ON THESE MACHINES..ANd have bought out MOSt of the software firms.
Is the computer AS good or BETTER then the console?
And if the console IS better…why isnt that tech on a computer, NEAR you?
And if the Tech IS’ on the computer, WHY are we using Consoles?
consoles have a cheap and simple OS, and can handle alot..
why is windows SO BIG and buggy? WHY work under Windows IF’ they could make their OWN OS??
this is a great use for them, but i know of a way that is free and has just gon to over a petaflop of processing power over all the projects. Its called boinc, read about it here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/index.cfm?a=wiki&tag=BOINC
#26
But I can’t use it to play games.