US Air Force looking to purchase 300 PS3s for cell processor assessment

by Majed Athab { Mar 5th 2008 at 9:00AM }

What could the US Air Force need 300 PS3s for? Military training via Warhawk? Maybe they want to give the troops some recreational games -- some echochrome perhaps? Nope, none of the above. Instead, the USAF will be using the 300 40GB PS3 consoles to conduct a "technology assessment of certain cell processors."

Apparently, the PS3 is perfect for the Air Force's research as it's the only hardware on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics they'll be needing, and it comes at a reasonable price. While we could think of multiple conspiracy theories about this research, we think we'll stay quiet and leave the speculations to you. Besides, right now we've got to tell the USAF that those 40GB PS3s won't be coming with four USB ports and Memory Stick slots like they have listed on the solicitation document. That is ... unless the military is getting a new 40GB model we've never heard about? Highly doubt that one.

[Thanks Schoolimangooli! Via Digg]

Tags: cell, cell-processor, cellprocessor, playstation-3, playstation3, ps3, us-airforce, usaf, usairforce

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

heckteck @ Mar 5th 2008 9:06AM

alright the ps3 is crossing into the blue hahahaha.......god i hate the air force (i'm in the air force) well i guess it wouldn't have been that been if i wasn't a cop

watcher @ Mar 5th 2008 9:14AM

You're in the Air force? What do you think these PS3s are going to be used for...An experimental fighter? Come on! Spill the beans!!

heckteck @ Mar 5th 2008 9:21AM

alright if i must then i must.......An experimental fighter no but it's to track down our golf swings in real time

Syn @ Mar 5th 2008 9:22AM

Autonomous military robots.

Schoolimangooli @ Mar 5th 2008 9:32AM

Go Air Force!

naxe @ Mar 5th 2008 9:12AM

PS3's on some military SH%#!!

sean @ Mar 5th 2008 9:20AM

you people are stupid. how can you not tell that its really for Little big planet and metal gear solid 4. lol

ian_shady @ Mar 5th 2008 10:53AM

haha so possible.. hell I'm waiting for those games

Saffie @ Mar 5th 2008 10:07AM

LOL. I was thinking the same. Just for MGS4 though. ^^

mji245 @ Mar 5th 2008 9:37AM

they must be getting a special ps3 from sony

alienclays @ Mar 5th 2008 9:39AM

if it was the navy i would be impressed, we would either put them to use in our morale and recreation setups, or use them to help calculate and predict effective full power usage of our naval nuclear reactors, or encrypt/decrypt broadband underwater communications, or use them as a recruiting tool with new socom kiosks.

the air force? if they are actually using them to do some reasearch, it will be the first bit of real work they've done that i can remember.

JayD-1K @ Mar 5th 2008 1:34PM

lmao, USMC ftw!

Darkdrium777 @ Mar 5th 2008 9:46AM

LOL at "Military training via Warhawk?" :D

Seems strange though that they are ordering 40GBs with four USB ports and memory card slots. Maybe it's a mistake, maybe it isn't.

The Sound @ Mar 5th 2008 9:46AM

They just want to play Warhawk.

KarlW @ Mar 5th 2008 9:59AM

300 ps3s will make for some serious LAN gaming. Seriously, if you need to research the CPU, I doubt you need that many. Its a coverup - they're just doing CoD4 deathmatches.

Didn't they say the PS2 could be used to divert missiles or something? I had mine modded, and I still never got any of that sweet warmongering goodness.

Dahk @ Mar 5th 2008 10:02AM

Nah, they're building the ultimate Folding @ Air Force team. They'll own those charts with 30 PS3's fighting for cancer 24/7.

halebound00 @ Mar 5th 2008 10:02AM

One word: Skynet. This is exactly how they said it would happen. Poop.

emaxximus @ Mar 5th 2008 10:04AM

Haha! you beat me to it.

Andrew Yoon @ Mar 5th 2008 11:03AM

Man, did you guys watch the Sarah Connor finale? I hope that show gets a second season.

Kabapu @ Mar 5th 2008 12:07PM

Yeah. That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking too.

And yes, I watched the finale. I actually enjoy the show (even though my roommates can't stand it). Sure nothing can really change in terms of story or plot, but who cares? It's like having a new Terminator movie every week. And who wouldn't want that?

maverick_saturn_626 @ Mar 5th 2008 10:03AM

Dudes, its for the soldiers to plug into thier planes, play warhawk while flying, get them hyped, lol

maverick_saturn_626 @ Mar 5th 2008 10:03AM

Folding@Sky maybe

chris joseph @ Mar 5th 2008 10:10AM

The PS3 cell array will be responsible for "skynet" becoming self-aware, fulfilling James Cameron's prophecy.

Joe @ Mar 5th 2008 10:15AM

The PS2 was said to have the power to launch Missiles. I guess seeing as Sony could not do it with the PS2 they made sure they would be able to launch them this time around with the PS3.

May be this is not for Missiles at all but to take apart the inside of the PS3 then plant bombs inside. So when they drop them on a town they blow up or put them in a house so when the bad guy goes to use it they get a surprise instead. Like what Wakka said to Rikku in FFX
"Like Big Festival Fireworks"

John @ Mar 5th 2008 9:29PM

There are instances where ps2's were strung together to get a massive amount of power, for the time. The ps2 has a very strange architecture. It's that 128-bit-wide data path. The hardware was such that you could string them together... you had to write your own code from scratch, but people were doing it for physics calcs and so on, beyond what you could do on the same number of more expensive computers strung together.

jah75157 @ Mar 5th 2008 10:28AM

i figured it would of been the marines first, using cod4 for battleground training

Dehshizknight @ Mar 5th 2008 11:26AM

The NAVY should be doing this when the real SOCOM comes out (not Confrontation, the one made by Zipper Interactive).

Kabapu @ Mar 5th 2008 12:12PM

Anyone else notice how in the original presolicitation notice they were ordering an extra controller and PS3 memory card adapters (I'm guessing for PS2 memory cards), then in the modified order they removed 'em?

Aside from the Skynet theory, I wouldn't be surprised if they just plan on playing with them. I have a friend in the Air Force in Iraq and all he does all day, everyday is play Halo 2 (mostly).

DrunkRaba @ Mar 5th 2008 12:32PM

they must be using them for gaming, because if it was just the cell they were interested, i'm sure Sony would just sell them the chips at a lower price than the console itself is.

ShawnShady @ Mar 5th 2008 2:19PM

"The Air Force Research Laboratory is conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors. The processors in the Sony PlayStation 3 are the only brand on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost."

Holy cow! 300 Ps3's for research! If 16 of them can calculate Black hole ripples in the space time continuum:(http://playstation.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/ps3s-to-simulate-black-hole-collisions/)

What the heck are they going to be doing with 300 of em??
Build a time machine??

David Van (Cool Prizes Inc.) @ Mar 5th 2008 3:14PM

YAAAAAAAAAAY! SKYNET! JK.... Yea... about that... I want 300 PS3 pl0x (please)!

Jove @ Mar 5th 2008 3:24PM

what yall talking crazy for! we all know this is for when ace combat 6 comes out theil be ready to train their pilots the real way!

steve peek @ Mar 5th 2008 3:26PM

ya, this isnt the first time the air force has baught the ps3's, they buy them for the cell because they arent allowed to buy the cell individually, so they end up gutting the ps3 and leaving the cases in a storage room somewhere in they're research lab, this has nothing to do with the pilots or other enlisted in the air force, its strictly for the research scientists and engineers(some of which are in the sir force) that work in the labs across the country, i remember seeing abot 100 empty cases in the lab i worked at last year(which were all purchased full price when the ps3 first came out), i guess the price drop has allowed them to buy a couple more

Joe H @ Mar 5th 2008 5:38PM

your pics r teh best, fanboy site.

Ubergoober434 @ Mar 5th 2008 6:00PM

I have 300 PS3s

George Arauz @ Mar 5th 2008 6:32PM

For what?????

John @ Mar 5th 2008 9:39PM

Come on, guys! We've seen what 8 ps3's strung together can do. Basically the Air Force is going to be looking at creating a very cheap, very powerful supercomputer... or 3, or 6. They'll have redundancy, so they might string them together in 80's 3x for different projects, with leftovers for security. They're going to be looking to see if they can cut their costs for real-time physics calculations, which means among missile predictions and so forth, remote handling of drones, and the like. By using ps3's, even with the cost of the programmers, they would save millions over using supercomputers, and likely have more power, besides. It's a no-brainer. That they picked up on this potentiality shows how wiley they are. At the end of the day? Beware.

John @ Mar 5th 2008 9:40PM

They also could use ps3's for their flight simulators. Right now those things are extremely expensive and already outdated. By stringing a few cheap ps3's together you could create multiple flight simulators that are more powerful than what they have now.