Scientists Turning to PS3

February 19th, 2008 by Rajiv Ashrafi in News, PlayStation 3

It is a known fact that the PS3 is a number-crunching beast, but just how powerful is its Cell processor? Scientists are now turning to this game console as a supercomputer, harnessing the power of several connected PS3s to perform complex mathematical problems.

“There is no doubt that the entertainment industry is helping to drive the direction of high performance computational science - exploiting the power available to the masses will lead to many research breakthroughs in the future,” comments Prof Peter Coveney of University College London, who uses supercomputing in chemistry.

Apparently, the console as a number of unique features that makes it suitable for the job. First off, it supports Linux and lets users run any program on it, or even code their own. Second, the Cell processor is immensely powerful, such that a network of PS3s can take on supercomputers.

“A single high-precision simulation can sometimes cost more than 5,000 hours on the TeraGrid supercomputers. For the same cost, you can build your own supercomputer using PS3s. It works just as well, has no long wait times and can be used over and over again, indefinitely,” Prof Khanna says.

Recently, Folding@Home announced that it had over 1 million users on the PS3, which offered far more performance than normal supercomputers.

Tags: News, PlayStation 3