The PlayStation 3 protects our country from the bad men

by Colin Torretta { Jun 22nd 2007 at 9:00PM }

It seems like people are constantly trying to figure out ways to use the PlayStation 3 in esoteric manners. We have Linuxed PS3s, ray-tracing PS3s, cancer curing PS3s and now we have SkyNet PS3s. According to KNDU News, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are hard at work harnessing the power of the PS3 for national security purposes.

The company is trying to harness the Cell-powered device to develop new video tools that would allow for things like increased facial recognition and automated security camera monitoring. In the article, the researchers mention that a single PS3 has about a quarter of the power as their lab's 8,000 square foot supercomputer. So this should allow them to massively increase their computational power without having to make a similarly massive investment.

I for one welcome our new PlayStation 3 overlords and their all seeing eye. Now if they would just gift us with some games ...

[Via N4G]

Tags: national security, NationalSecurity, playstation 3, Playstation3, skynet

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:16PM

1/4 the power of an 8,000 square foot supercomputer? That's freaking incredible. So 4 ps3's equals the power of an 8,000 square foot supercomputer...

Well... guess we won't be griping about size, anymore...

This is funny, though, as the writer points out, here all these agencies are finding esoteric uses for the ps3, a GAME machine. Of course, Sony always said... "PS3 IS NOT A CONSOLE! PS3 IS COMPUTAH!"

ps3 CONTAIN the internet...

Jason B. @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:25PM

There is a video on the original link that NG4 uses as it's source..

WebMaster @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:28PM

That must be one ancient "super computer".

miguelon918 @ Jun 23rd 2007 2:40AM

webmaster you are such a wi60 fanboy...

ryano @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:07PM

i think webmaster has a point. i thought they did away with the super computers long ago. remember the movie "Wargames"? yeah, those ones. for sure i believed all national security facilities housed alien wares! =P

Azorean @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:36PM

Now if we could only get the PS3 to play games!

WebMaster @ Jun 23rd 2007 1:05PM

@miguelon918

Hardly. I own a PS3 and a Elite 360, not a Wii. I'm simply a gamer enthusiasts, not a corporote whore who will believe any bullshit about their "video game console" as long as they think it will give others penis envy. Neither my PS3 or my 360 will do what my pc will.

Numlok @ Jun 23rd 2007 6:16PM

I actually got a bigger penis when I bought my Ps3. Two inches. It's true!

vizunary @ Jun 23rd 2007 9:38PM

@Numlok, that's some funny shit man.... I will not however be supporting anything that further violates my rights. I leave that up to Republicans.

Breeze @ Jun 23rd 2007 11:35PM

That's very impressive. Did you also know that Xbox 360's are used to monitor the mating habits of hamsters? That's about the only scientific use for them since the 360 is too weak to fold.

Sean @ Jun 24th 2007 2:03AM

great, our neopunk future is because of the PS3... well... you win some, you lose some.

harker @ Jun 24th 2007 3:21AM

@10
"That's about the only scientific use for them since the 360 is too weak to fold."

lol...i think you need to read this my friend:

"29. I would like to make a comment in response to what TheGuy said when he responded to my initial comment.

TheGuy, there is actually one excellent method of measuring the 3D performance of a GPU; it's called Polygon Performance; the larger amount of polygons that can be displayed per second, the better.

Polygons are often referred to as triangles, because a triangle is the form of polygons that requires the smallest amount of dedicated vertices. It would take at least three vertices to create one true triangular polygon. There are times when it actually takes more than three vertices to create a polygon, in order to show the true effect of a 3D image.

According to the specifications of the ATI Xenos GPU, it gives the Xbox 360 the ability to display 500,000,000 polygons per second.

According to the specifications of the Nvidia RSX GPU, it gives the PS3 the ability to display only 275,000,000 polygons per second.

If you want proof that is quite easy to find, just look on the boxes of the videogame systems.

Proof that the Xbox 360 has far superior polygon performance can be seen in quite a few games in particular.

One of the best examples really can be seen when you look at the way F.E.A.R. on the Xbox 360 and PC won awards for graphics and gameplay. But the PS3 version of F.E.A.R. almost looks like you are playing it on a system from last generation because it has such a choppy framerate and lacks so many features.

MLB 2K7 is another game. In a recent Gamespot comparison, the editors specifically pointed out how important it is to consider a framerate in addition, not just a still screenshot. When you look at the screenshots, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of MLB 2K7 look virtually identical. If you look carefully you will see the Xbox 360 version does have “little things” that look better and take up polygons. For example, fans sitting down in the background are more detailed in the Xbox 360 version of the game. When you play the game, and see it in motion, you quickly see that the Playstation 3 can't keep up with the action; that's why the framerate starts to get really choppy and move into slow-motion.

The best-looking exclusive games on the Xbox 360, such as Gears of War, Lost Planet, and Crackdown are quite a bit more impressive than PS3 exclusive games.

For example, when Motorstorm was reviewed it was said that, "Graphics are not the strength of the game." Motorstorm also suffers from framerate problems quite often, and it was around that time when the PS3 started to get an "Official Reputation for Having Framerate Problems."

Resistance: FOM is a game that has received mixed reviews where the reviewers very often say things like, "The game is good, but it's not a killer-app, and the graphics aren't especially impressive."

So, there is obviously quite a difference in polygon performance between the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

One other really good example people talk about can be found when you compare Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360 to Ridge Racer 7 on the PS3. Many of the tracks are the same in both versions, so it is easy to do a comparison.

First, Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360 has a perfectly smooth framerate at all times, while the PS3's Ridge Racer 7 gets choppy at times in the same spots.

Second, is the way there are missing sailboats in the PS3 version. That is a lack of detail that you might not notice at first, but after a few laps you notice something is missing. Then you realize what it is and you think to yourself, "Hey, those sailboats aren't there anymore."

Third, is the way water under the bridges moves with nice looking waves on the Xbox 360 version. Each of those little waves is made up of polygons, and each of those polygons is displayed 60 times each second. But with the PS3 version, the waves don't move at all. The water in the PS3 version is just one textured polygon that shows the image of water, but doesn't have enough polygons for waves to move.

In addition to polygon performance, the GPU handles lighting. The lighting and shading on the Xbox 360 GPU is so much greater than the PS3 GPU that I'm sure virtually everyone has seen it for themselves. One look at big differences in games like Ridge Racer, even bigger differences in games like Fight Night Round 3, or the HUGE differences in games like Tony Hawk Skating Project 8, and you will INSTANTLY see the superiority of the Xbox 360 GPU when it comes to lighting and shading. If you want proof of that lighting situation, though, Gamespot has a nice comparison that shows how much better the Xbox 360 lighting and shading is.

I hope I was able to do a good job of helping you out. But the fact is the information about the Xbox 360 GPU superiority has been known for a very long time.

The Xbox 360 GPU really was WAY ahead of its time. The Xenos GPU was released inside the Xbox 360 in November of 2005. The Xenos GPU is based on the same Unified Shader design that Windows Vista is, and Windows Vista wasn't released until January 30, 2007!

But the PS3 GPU is based on four-year old, non-customized GPU technology. The PS3 wasn't even supposed to have a GPU in its original design. Originally the PS3 was supposed to have two Cell processors, but no GPU. Then Sony saw the awesome performance of the Xbox 360, and they were forced to quickly redesign the PS3. This is almost exactly the same thing that happened to the Sega Saturn. Both the PS3 and the Sega Saturn ended up redesigned, overpriced, and underperforming.

As far as what you said about the way Floating Point math calculations relate to Physics, you would be 100% correct if the PS3 CPU didn't have to worry about Graphics, Sound, and Artificial Intelligence. Generally speaking, Graphics are the most important, followed by Sound and Artificial Intelligence. Real-time physics are often considered the least important part of a videogame.

There is one main reason why the Physics aspect of the PS3 is rarely used in videogames: The design architecture of the Playstation 3 does NOT give the developers the ability to use the Physics ability of the PS3 while playing games in the same way that it does when games are not being played. There is a very simple reason for this.

The Cell CPU of the PS3 has one main CPU, and seven sub-processors that are referred to as SPEs. Originally Sony planned on using two Cell processors, each with eight SPEs, but for cost cutting reasons the PS3 ended up with only one Cell CPU and it was a lower-quality model with only 7 SPEs. Here's where it gets interesting:

The Playstation 3 CPU has only two threads to send signals to the SPE sub-processors. Each SPE receives signals from the CPU through a Thread. This means the PS3 has seven SPEs, each of which tends to be devoted to something special, but only two of those SPEs can receive signals at a time. It's a very inefficient process that is difficult for developers to take advantage of; it's literally like trying to juggle seven balls (SPEs) with only two arms (CPU threads).

This means when a videogame ISN’T being played, and Physics calculations need to be made, the PS3 could constantly use the SPE dedicated to Physics at all times, because there would be virtually no need for graphics or sound technology.

But when a videogame is being played, there are always needs for graphic related signals, and commands from the CPU to SPE chips related to Artificial Intelligence. PS3 Physics during a videogame represent only a very small fraction of what PS3 Physics performance represents when a videogame isn't being used in the PS3 system.

The Xbox 360 has three CPUs, each with two threads, for a total of six threads dedicated for use in any way the developers want; they are able to use this form of General Purpose CPU power to do exactly what they want at any time; the Xbox 360 developers are not dependent on whether or not an SPE happens to be available. This means the Xbox 360 developers can do things like devote an entire CPU with two whole Threads to nothing but Artificial Intelligence. That is something Tecmo has said they will be doing with Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360.

Virtua Fighter 5 is another example of how the Xbox 360 design architecture is far superior to the PS3. The Artificial Intelligence in the Xbox 360 version is much better than the PS3 version. It's like that with a lot of games--even Ubisoft has said for quite a while now that Assassins Creed will have noticeably better Artificial Intelligence on the Xbox 360.

Well, I hope I was able to help you out and provide useful technical information. I need to get going, but if you have other questions, please feel free to ask.

Posted at 4:35PM on Jun 23rd 2007 by Lion"

harker @ Jun 24th 2007 3:26AM

i'm sure as hell going to be banned by posting that!

but i found it interesting especially considering how well the PS3 performs with anything non game related. and how the 360 seems to fail with hardware yet have games with superior gameplay/graphics. 0_o

harker @ Jun 24th 2007 3:27AM

Andy @ Jun 24th 2007 2:31PM

Virtua Fighter 5 is another example of how the Xbox 360 design architecture is far superior to the PS3.

I rented it and didn't like it all on the PS3. I don't like fighting games so enjoy it. I think it is a little early to be saying that before you get your hands on it. And I bet it will be better on the 360 becuause the dev's had more time to work on it.

You must type like 100 wpm. I'm impressed.

harker @ Jun 24th 2007 5:28PM

erm, i just copied a good post from someone else. ign and 1up said the 360 version was better because it's innards can handle more advanced AI. but yeah, more time in the oven will def-- oh, wait how long does every 360 to PS3 port take? and how does that game look and compare to the 360 versions??....yeah...

Neil @ Jun 25th 2007 8:52AM

@harker

Great info but i shan't be buying an Xbodge360 any time soon. Even if those facts are true, the Xbox360 is a noisy, badly designed, unreliable beast. The PS3 really does look really cool next to my SAMSUNG LCD tv and it's really quiet, hasn't missed a beat and for me at least, I'm enjoying the games and guess what, I have a great back catalogue of PS2 ( yes, the best of the last Gen consoles ) games as well. So, Even if history eventually proves the Xbox has more grunt ( something I currently doubt ), I really really don't give a rats arse.

I thank you.