Supercomputer systems replaced by PS3

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 17th 2007 at 7:15PM }

Cell's immense power is largely undisputed by the scientific community. Folding@Home is just one example of how Cell and the PS3 can compute massive amounts of data for the sake of scientific research. An astrophysicist recently linked eight PS3 systems together and was able to compute the same amount of data as 200 supercomputers. After Gaurav Khanna created code optimized for the PS3, Sony took attention and donated a few systems to his research.

"Basically, it's almost like a replacement," he told Wired. "I don't have to use that supercomputer anymore, which is a good thing." While one PS3 costs $500, a single supercomputer can cost $5000. The cost of eight PS3s is incredibly negligible compared to the massive cost of traditional supercomputers.

With his PS3s at hand, Khanna will be researching gravitational waves.

[Via Digg]

Tags: cell, supercomputer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Frank @ Oct 17th 2007 7:22PM

While one PS3 costs $500, a single supercomputer can cost $5000. The cost of eight PS3s is incredibly negligible compared to the massive cost of traditional supercomputers.

500 x 8 = 4000
Single supercomputer = 5000

I fail to see how that's "incredibly negligible". But good work Sony!

Joe @ Oct 17th 2007 7:28PM

An astrophysicist recently linked eight PS3 systems together and was able to compute the same amount of data as 200 supercomputers.

200 * 5000 = 1000000

risrepkel @ Oct 17th 2007 7:36PM

Of course you forget (or never knew in the first place) when determining how well a machine "computes", efficiency is also a factor. Your 200mhz is not very efficient and therefore fails.

In other news, you must be bored to be trolling. No good games out for your system of choice?

phattie @ Oct 17th 2007 7:44PM

Whats the definition of a super computer.. some gaming laptops cost more than that.

Joe @ Oct 17th 2007 7:45PM

where is the logic in saying a pentium can do the same amount of work?

and since you obviously like the 360 more, there's a 360fanboy website just for you, stay over there.

its stupid to take a side, if you don't own all 3 consoles, you're only cheating yourself and are therefore an idiot

Joe @ Oct 17th 2007 7:48PM

Tim Parsons @ Oct 17th 2007 7:50PM

WHOA,. so how's this gravitational research gonna benifit me has a Gamer?(that being the reason i got a PS3)

Joe @ Oct 17th 2007 7:50PM

well look at that, stupid multiple comments.

but yes, price is certainly not a factor when it comes to being a supercomputer. google search it :)

apease @ Oct 17th 2007 8:00PM

@9: Well, apparently the ps3 can handle realistic physics, gamers like that, right? Jeez.

While I'm here, he didn't replace 200 supercomputers, he replaced 200 supercomputer nodes. BIG difference. Also, the supercomputers didn't cost $5000 (think about it), what cost $5000 was *each use* of those 200-500 nodes.

ghostjeep @ Oct 17th 2007 10:37PM

And Gabe Newell still can't find a use for a PS3.

Consolcwby @ Oct 17th 2007 8:32PM

Here is the link to the research: http://gravity.phy.umassd.edu/ps3.html

Now this is too cool: Quoted **
"The interest in the PS3 really was for two main reasons," explains Khanna, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth who specializes in computational astrophysics. "One of those is that Sony did this remarkable thing of making the PS3 an open platform, so you can in fact run Linux on it and it doesn't control what you do."

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.

"The PS3/Linux combination offers a very attractive cost-performance solution whether the PS3s are distributed (like Sony and Stanford's Folding@home initiative) or clustered together (like Khanna's), says Sony's senior development manager of research and development, Noam Rimon.

According to Rimon, the Cell processor was designed as a parallel processing device, so he's not all that surprised the research community has embraced it. "It has a general purpose processor, as well as eight additional processing cores, each of which has two processing pipelines and can process multiple numbers, all at the same time," Rimon says.
**

Now, this is the kind of thing that gets me off! I love hearing about unusual applications and technical uses for gadgets, and the PS3 is one of the most powerful gadgets out there. =)

Edge @ Oct 17th 2007 8:26PM

Fine. But does it play any games besides Let's Count Intergalactic Sand?

I guess this means that programming PS3 IS rocket science.

Edge @ Oct 17th 2007 8:36PM

"if you don't own all 3 consoles, you're only cheating yourself and are thereforean idiot"

I love Thereforeian arguments!

I'm just going to let that sink in for a second. "If you don't spend too much money on the losing system, you must be an idiot."

I guess when I get the $199 PS3 off the clearance rack at Toys R Us in 3 years, I'll still be an idiot. Poor me.

Consolcwby @ Oct 17th 2007 8:32PM

@Edge: All game programming IS science - COMPUTER SCIENCE. =/ Only an untrained M$ monkey wouldn't know that... Hate now, buy later. I suppose that's the motto you live by, isn't?...

ekbigpimping @ Oct 18th 2007 8:09PM

PS3 Wins European Console Wars
Posted by sjohnson - Wednesday, October 17, 2007 7:47 AM

The console battlefields of the world are littered with the charred corpses of casualties from the console wars. Lynx, Intellivision, Jaquar, GameCube, brave, fallen soldiers all.

Anyway. The PlayStation 3 outsold it's two main console competitors in Europe for the week ending October 14th.

Here's how the numbers looked, according to VGChartz:

-------Weekly------Total
DS---158,975-----17,282,952
PS3---77,827------1,697,638
Wii----75,033-------3,523,800
PSP--62,027-------8,535,003
PS2---53,843-----43,151,763
360----42,244-------3,754,596
GBA----2,495-----19,534,242

The week's surge pushes the PS3's worldwide sales over 5 million. Do you think the PS-Triple has turned the corner and will see a similar spike in the states? Stay tuned! Also, how awesome is it that 2,495 Europeans bought a GameBoy Advance last week?

Edge @ Oct 17th 2007 9:04PM

Consolcwby:

Dude. Lame. I make a point and you go straight for the personal attack.

R-ock-ett-sci-ence. As in harder than regular science.

Ya, buy later. Much later.

Everything I want is on 360, and increasingly less on PS3. I just picked up Beautiful Katamari today. Can you say that?

Bored @ Oct 17th 2007 8:59PM

Can't you do something about this Edge troll?

On topic, this is mildly interesting, but I'd rather hear your views on the GT5 Prologue delay.

Kspraydad @ Oct 17th 2007 8:49PM

Edge...

I truly could give a dry hump about what you bought for you 360 today. How about we stay on topic.

PS3 or Supercomputing is the current topic...not fluffed up PS2 ports.

upz @ Oct 17th 2007 9:11PM

While this sounds cool, it's actually bad news for Sony. The PS3 is a drastic loss leader. Every console sold that isn't by accompanied numerous copies of software is a sizeable hit to Sony's bottom line. The scientific community buying up PS3s for use as cheap computational machines is actually bad news for Sony, and in turn, Sony fans.

Microdot @ Oct 17th 2007 9:17PM

"Everything I want is on 360, and increasingly less on PS3. I just picked up Beautiful Katamari today. Can you say that?"

yes actually. ive been playing it on my psp for some time now.

good to see things never change around here though. there are still just as many cranky/whiney/vaginal-bleeding xbox fanboys as ever.

pssst... edge.... your stupidity is showing.

proArchy @ Oct 17th 2007 9:25PM

i wonder if linking ps3s together like this could be applied to gaming. like having several ps3s doing seperate part of a complex program that wouldnt be possible with just one, but making all the players benefit from it. in a multi player game, one could render the objects, while another focuses on physics, and another handles all the player data. Making for a massive world, or ridiculous physics.

Roystik @ Oct 17th 2007 9:30PM

I find it funny that scientists are able to harness the power of the PS3, yet game developers are whining that its too hard to code for the PS3.

I'm not a programmer, so I must be missing something...but still....

Zim @ Oct 17th 2007 9:26PM

So how many X-boxes dose it to take to be as good as a super computer ?

100,000,000

50,000 to be the super computer and the rest are to replace the x-boxes that got a ring of death and as you can see that would be alot.

MYPS3KilledMy360 @ Oct 17th 2007 10:52PM

@upz how is it bad news
@edge i have the original and theres going to be a new katamari coming to the PS3.

just like Consolcwby im the same i love hearing about this stuff. HOW MANY EXCLUSIVE SERIES DOES THE 360 REALLY HAVE ANYWAY? the PS3 is getting every second installment the 360 had in there first year, LOST PLANET is going tot the PS3 one less bullet you can take off your exclusive list. whats next dead rising? but then 360 fanboys will say we already had that after naming all there exclusives. from what is see 360 exclusives are nearly non existant mostly all of them show up on the PC with more content and better graphics. Maybe he PS3 hasnt gotten a lot of 9s but the constant stream of 8s with series that have not established them selves is nothing to scoff at. RFOM 8, Motorstorm 8, N. Gaiden sigma 9, Heavenly Sword 8, WarHawk 8, Folklore 8, strangly enough that only japan loves LAIR and gave it an 8.

MYPS3KilledMy360 @ Oct 17th 2007 10:58PM

ust like Consolcwby im the same i love hearing about this stuff. HOW MANY EXCLUSIVE SERIES DOES THE 360 REALLY HAVE ANYWAY? the PS3 is getting every second installment the 360 had in there first year, LOST PLANET is going tot the PS3 one less bullet you can take off your exclusive list. whats next dead rising? but then 360 fanboys will say we already had that after naming all there exclusives. from what is see 360 exclusives are nearly non existant mostly all of them show up on the PC with more content and better graphics. Maybe he PS3 hasnt gotten a lot of 9s but the constant stream of 8s with series that have not established them selves is nothing to scoff at. RFOM 8, Motorstorm 8, N. Gaiden sigma 9, Heavenly Sword 8, WarHawk 8, Folklore 8, strangly enough that only japan loves LAIR and gave it an 8.

Consolcwby @ Oct 18th 2007 12:00AM

@MYPS3KilledMy360: There's something you've got to understand about Sony-hating internet trolls like Edge - to them the PS3 will NEVER have any games. NEVER. Not a single one. It's like all those people on the net who say the Holocaust never happened, or men never landed on the moon, or that Kennedy was shot by the CIA: It is what they want to believe. It makes their hateful words and prejudice against people seem justified. In their eyes, they are the enlightened ones and everyone else are either misinformed, stupid, or part of the conspiracy. =/ Let's face it, when Sega went under someone had to be blamed for it and Sony seemed the likely candidate (of course, they would never blame Sega's own stupid misteps they took over the course of eight years as the real culprit - video game consoles are an extention of hostility and war with companies replacing governments, aren't they?) Ever since then, the hate for Sony has increased to the point where a typical teenager under nineteen has no idea WHY people hate Sony so much, but emulate what they see the 'cool' people doing. On the net there is no accountability, so they can do and say everything they can't in rl (such as call people n*ggers and f*ggots, troll, put up links to viruses, etc). The sad thing about them is this: In the end, they are nothing but hypocrites. Pure and simple - the worst of the worst, and they will grow up believing that they are accountable to no one and everything they do and say has no effect; in other words - they learn to dull their own consciences and develop a lack of empathy to humanity. At least that's what it looks like on XBL...

AK @ Oct 18th 2007 1:15AM

people keep saying the ps3 has no games, yet 360 users have trouble naming good exclusives besides the games that are on 360 and the pc. we seem to have no trouble at all, warhaw motorstorm resistance heavenly sword genji ridge racer 7... and all the multi platforms. and th good upcomiung games littlebigplanet white knight story ff13 ff13 versus MGS4 motorstorm 2 and rockstar's unnamed ps3 exclusive title. still havent even touched all the games.

fly @ Oct 18th 2007 2:16AM

#23 i believe he meant that since they are just buying the consoles and not games, and since sony is losing money on each console sold right now, sony is only losing on this deal and in turn we are too because of less money for games or extras for the ps3, things like this.

Tom @ Oct 18th 2007 2:33AM

Upz: "The scientific community buying up PS3s for use as cheap computational machines is actually bad news for Sony, and in turn, Sony fans" -- are you seriously telling me that these scientists aren't playing Warhawk on Friday afternoons?!?

Joking apart, I don't think the scientific community will buy enough to cause any kind of effect on Sony's finances (unless Sony keep giving systems away to labs!). For those who haven't yet understood: the reason this is important is that it once again proves the technological superiority of the PS3. We all know that it has been tough to program for but we also all know that the games are starting to come. It's going to take more time to get the full power out of the PS3, and that can be annoying. But at least it's something to look forward to, unlike other systems which are apparently at their best performance already. That must be disappointing.

Ronnie @ Oct 18th 2007 4:00AM

Isn't This actually Bad for Sony? They sell the consoles at a Loss with hopes to make up the money in software sales. So that's eight PS3's that won't be buying any games.

EvilWalksWithMe @ Oct 18th 2007 2:57PM

How does this help ps3? it's falsifying sales stats. It's won't help better games come out. I'm sick of looking at my ps3 turned off all the time. im sick of having to play x360 all the time to get some enjoyment. i want some killer games on ps3. ps3's selling to replace super computers doesn't put more consoles in homes, and doesn't help better games come out.

SimplyB @ Oct 18th 2007 9:06AM

Well said Consolcwby!

phenom13 @ Oct 18th 2007 12:40PM

The thing that amuses me is that scientists are able to write and code for the Cell processor. That tells me what I've been thinking is when science and technology embrace this new tech. Game developers will start to as well. Which means the official beginning of NEXT GEN games. Not gaming 1.5

Castor @ Oct 18th 2007 12:07PM

Sony did donate a few systems to this cause. Those systems will be a tax write off for sony which actually helps them on thier losses. Given that it is only a couple grand but it lessens the impact of the scientists buying them on their own and Sony just losing the money from production.