Posted on 11/25/2007 10:38:14 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Dr Gaurav Khanna is a professor at the University of Massachusetts. He has been renting supercomputers at NASA and the US National Science Foundation for US$20,000-$30,000 a year to run complicated calculations on just how much radiation is emitted in the process of a black hole swallowing a star... "For US$4,000 or so, I can get eight PS3s that can do the same task that I'd do on a supercomputer. For a one-time cost, I have this resource I can use privately. I can use it indefinitely over and over again. That's hugely attractive. That's why I considered the project. I have my own supercomputer right here. There's no elaborate process for getting time. There's no waiting. It's just mine." ...the professor claims it has "has a lot more potential -- a better processor in my opinion," he said. "What's unique is that they (Sony) made it an open platform. Normally with a game console, the maker controls who can run what on it. What Sony did was make the PS3 an open platform. They let you run whatever you want on it. It has the full capabilities of a normal computer. You can run Firefox or whatever you want. It gave me the possibility of doing whatever I want with it."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.softpedia.com ...
This is a graphic of one black hole spiraling into another. It is representative of the problems Prof. Khanna is analyzing.Gaurav Khanna ps3:
From PlayStation to Supercomputer for $50,000
New York Times | 2003-05-26 | By JOHN MARKOFF
Posted on 05/26/2003 9:27:15 AM EDT by Lessismore
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/917846/posts
Sony: PlayStation 3 Can Help Cure Cancer
Fox News.com | Wednesday, November 22, 2006 | Assoicated Press
Posted on 12/05/2006 1:01:59 PM EST by sportutegrl
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1748815/posts
PlayStation 3 gives Blu-ray disc sales a boost
GamesDog | 5/23/2007
Posted on 05/24/2007 2:11:49 PM EDT by HamiltonJay
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839164/posts
HD VMD to Battle Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD
PC World | 08 September 2007 | Alan Stafford
Posted on 09/10/2007 11:20:25 PM EDT by ShadowAce
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1894373/posts
Slaughter: Horror at Sony’s depraved
promotion stunt with decapitated goat
Evening Standard | 4-28-07
Posted on 04/28/2007 8:47:23 PM EDT by Snickering Hound
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1825327/posts
“video of a real OS being loaded on the PS3.” — ShadowAce (thanks!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45eNPrIT9Qw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor
The Cell architecture is one of the most powerful processor designs out there. The supercomputer abilities of these processors in parallel was known right from the time in debuted.
Folding@home - The PS3 and Post-PetaFLOP
Folding@home: The Science | 09/18/2007 | PandeGroup
Posted on 10/04/2007 12:20:01 PM EDT by texas booster
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1906532/posts
PS3 network enters record books
Last Updated: Friday, 2 November 2007, 10:41 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7074547.stm
[snip] A project that harnesses the spare processing power of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) to help understand the cause of diseases has entered the record books. Guinness World Records has recognised folding@home (FAH) as the world’s most powerful distributed computing network. [end]
Definitely looks like it, although the chip is so expensive to make that its difficult to make money, the game system is more expensive.
“Operating losses in Sony’s video game unit for the year ending March 2008 could potentially exceed Y100 billion (L422 million) - twice as much as the Y50 billion (L211 million) originally projected, a Sony spokeswoman told Reuters.”
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/31/40gb-ps3-65nm-cell-processor
I’m not a gamer, but apparently the Wii has really nice interface devices. At some friends’ house I went virtual bowling (that’s the extent of what I can handle), and it was silly, but almost realistic.
Didn’t the computer geniuses at Virginia Tech put together a bunch of Apple computers to make a super computer?
Nintedo got the price/affordability/features mix right with the Wii, from the market perspective.
Sony’s PS3 is definitely the feature/capability-wise most superior console available right now, but it prices itself out of most people’s pockets.
I’ve heard that as well. When asked, my 12 yr old son says he’d like a Play Station 2. The PS3 is too expensive.
Once the networking stuff got nice and cheap, even trivial, and dozens or hundreds of old peecees got replaced, and Linux came on strong, I remember reading about parallel processing across piles of linked machines, being done very cheaply at universities. Naturally, the processing power is much higher now.
But anyway, you’ve come to the right guy...
Speaking of Apple parallel processing:
http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/CratePaper.html
That’s a great kid, right there, “no, I don’t want you to spend more money, the PS2 will be fine”. Of course, the Iraqis innovated the use of linked PS2s as a supercomputing platform...
WND Exclusive: Why Iraq’s buying up Sony PlayStation 2s
Source: World Net Daily
Published: December 19, 2000 Author: Joseph Farah
Posted on 12/19/2000 01:16:53 PST by Singapore_Yank
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a3f27852c0f.htm
Why Saddam Bought 1,400 Playstation 2 Toys
Source: Jai Links
Published: 12 21 00 Author: Jim Miklaszewski NBC
Posted on 12/22/2000 03:38:14 PST by oceanperch
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a433d26700d.htm
Sony plans more home media stuff built-in, also keyboard and mouse will be included to ease web-surfing. I’d be very surprised not to see the chip used in other platforms from IBM and perhaps Toshiba (the other developers of the Cell).
I actually downloaded a 700MB iso Linux distro (see, I’m catchin’ the lingo) and burned it (SM — I used MacOS 9.2.1, Disk Copy, and the Adaptec original of Toast, and a USB 1.1 Iomega outboard burner, nyah nyah) onto a CD, because I want to start folding proteins for the cause, and I’ve got, hmm, at least a couple of old wintels setting around. I want to try networking this Gateway, just to get a WFW 3.1 online, may be the last one still running...
I’d like to patch up the iMac as well, but turning into a wall decoration that is also functional, so I’m going to have to find someone who knows some stuff about that bad analog board, also fix up an outboard monitor (maybe I’ll do that KVM). Having an iMac (rev B, 1999) hanging on the wall here and doing nothing but folding proteins would be pretty geeky.
That is exactly what he said. He is a great kid.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1929553/posts
Current Folding@home thread.
It is pretty amazing what Sony has built around the Cell processor.
I understand that IBM and ATIAMD are working together on future projects ...
:’) Thanks.
They’re collaborating on AMD’s move from 65nm to 45nm, which should take place in 2008.
I know nothing about string theory....I did see an Alexander Horned Sphere several times though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.