News report: Folding@home in action
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Mar 19th 2007 at 7:15PM }
While the rest of the world waits, Japanese PS3 owners have been able to enjoy the most significant update to the PS3 so far. Firmware version 1.6 includes background downloading, the ability to zoom in the web browser, and Folding@home, an application that allows your PS3 to aid researchers in their search for cures to many diseases. Siliconera has found a news report that (shock) paints the PS3 in a very positive light.
Check out the video, embedded above. Will you be running the Folding@home application when it arrives to your PS3 this Friday?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TheGuy @ Mar 19th 2007 8:06PM
While it's a great idea, it still has lots of room for improvement. The program only activates when someone has left their PS3 on for a while it's not doing anything. Therefore, it'll usually just run if someone purposefully leaves their PS3 on for the whole day, which most people wouldn't do just to have this program running. If the program could be changed so that it would run while watching a movie, browsing the internet, or even run during a long period of pause in a game then the program could be used a lot more. Once Sony gets things ironed out with backwards downloading, there's always hope these changes could be made.
Jiraiya @ Mar 19th 2007 8:34PM
True that it only works when idle, but since it IS 20x faster then the average PC, it can do a lot more in a lot less time.
Silver R. Wolfe @ Mar 19th 2007 9:28PM
I'd run it just cuz it looks cool. And cuz it's my own little way of helping humanity.
Vincent060 @ Mar 19th 2007 10:29PM
Actually, I heard that it had two options for when you want it to run. One is when you want it to run while the game is idle. The other is if you want it to run right away, not being able to do anything while it is running (except maybe turn it off when you want to stop running the program and do something else.) I'm not sure if it will have that option or not though.
Andir3.0 @ Mar 20th 2007 7:57AM
To be the first to answer your question :p yes. I will be running this on my PS3, as much as physically possible.
Andir3.0 @ Mar 20th 2007 7:58AM
Damn... OK, the second to answer. Sorry.
Brian Spence @ Mar 20th 2007 9:24AM
As a cancer survivor myself, I hope all of you guys take part in having your PS3s find a cure.
Justin @ Mar 20th 2007 12:04PM
Will they be reimbursing me for my electric bill?
Matt B @ Mar 20th 2007 11:46AM
I will be running it all day and night when I'm not playing games.
Jay @ Mar 20th 2007 8:15PM
Apple rip-off. Jobs thought of this in 1978. Or so Gizmodo, Wikipedia and the fanboys will be saying within a day or two....
;o)
But seriously, this is an important step in Sony's strategy. They did say this would be much more than just a games console. Who in their right mind* could criticise this initiative?
* Excludes those who think the Wii is revolutionary or that anything prefixed with a lower-case "i" must be awesome and new.
aki @ Mar 26th 2007 10:43AM
Neat, but what is really going on here, is Sony is *selling* your bandwidth and your processing power to researchers for quite a large bit of cash and then in turn not passing that savings on to you, the consumer.
Let me reiterate... They use YOUR processor, and the bandwidth YOU pay for, to make money and give you nothing back for it. Yay YOU.
Sure it's neat tech and a great way for Sony to make money and look good in the press, but the whole story is not being told.
DirtDiver @ Mar 26th 2007 11:44AM
@ Aki,
Do you have specific knowledge of these profits Sony gains from this research?
At any rate how do you see this as different than donating some small amount of money to a charity. Electricity cost for 200W is small and the PS3 would do similar processing for games over it's lifetime so don't think the next time I turn off F@H I will have reached some sort of limit on the processor.
Heres how I see it:
1. It runs when I'm not playing games. If I want to play a game or do anything else I stop it and do as I please.
2. It was planned to be implemented before the console came out so it was probably well tested and won't negatively affect my PS3
3. Cost about 11.5 cents per 7 hours for electricity
4. I pay for bandwidth monthly at a fixed rate as do most people. Doesn't matter if I don't use it at all or d/l 500 torrents, I still pay the same amount.
5. Best of all I Get a good feeling about the opportunity to aid in research that may help in developing cures to diseases.
I.E. NO BRAINER even if Sony made a killing profit wise.