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Apr 12, 2007, 09:06 PM
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#1 |
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Sony Considering PS3 Supercomputer-Grid
According to Sony’s chief technical officer Masa Chatani, the PS3’s idle power could soon be put to commercial use in a similar way to the Folding@Home project. Due to its enormous processing power, whilst the console is not in use it can be used to tackle the complex calculations behind the Folding@Home project which simulates protein folding, therefore allowing scientists to better understand many diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as a number of cancers. The PS3 has proved very successful in this area, accounting for 367 TFLOPS in the recent Folding@Home statistics. But now, Sony may be about to expand this project to new, more profitable areas. “This kind of computing model could be used in a commercial application...for example, a start-up or a pharmaceutical company that lacks a super-computer could utilise this kind of infrastructure. We are discussing various options with companies and exploring commercial applications,” Chatani said. Such a deal could well see businesses either offering free products or subsidising the price of the PS3 in return for the use of PS3 owners’ idle processing power, although Sony has not yet revealed which companies having discussions with.
Source: Forbes |
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Apr 12, 2007, 09:20 PM
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#2 |
 
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as i understand it, they are looking forward to turn idle PS3 into concrete money, that's very clever to make money while gamers provides both machine and electricity
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Apr 12, 2007, 09:21 PM
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#3 |
 
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Yep exactly. It will be PS3 owners footing the bill for private research ans Sony's commission.
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Apr 12, 2007, 09:26 PM
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#4 |
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The actual statistics of the Folding at home can be found over here:
F@H stats by OS used Today's stats: 
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Apr 12, 2007, 09:48 PM
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#5 |
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That figure's fallen quite a bit even though the number of active CPUs has risen - what's up with that?
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Apr 12, 2007, 09:56 PM
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#6 |
 
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at least they're willing to pay people....
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Apr 12, 2007, 10:16 PM
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McLovin
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Well, the way I understand it, they're robbing people of their PS3 power so that companies can use the PS3 power. If this is the case, I smell class-action lawsuit for spyware-like behavior. If people who donate their PS3's time get monetary compensation, however, I see no problems. The PS3 DOES offer a lot of power. And it uses a lot too
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Apr 12, 2007, 10:24 PM
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the PS3 may have alot of processing power, but look at the GPUs (X1900s?) scores - for the small number of 'cpus' it is a huge score
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Apr 12, 2007, 10:54 PM
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#9 | ||
 
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Quote:
Quote:
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Apr 12, 2007, 11:14 PM
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#10 |
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I very much doubt the incentives will offset the cost of electricity and internet access that many participants will have to foot the bill for, the most likely scenario is Sony will give players who sign up to the folding@home programme cheap and costless prizes such as free premium items for games and such while making a fortune for themselves.
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Apr 13, 2007, 01:26 AM
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It should be easy for Sony to get a decently large following for their own distributive computing projects, just make some incentive based system earning points for hours donated then sell games, merchandise, etc. for the points.
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Apr 13, 2007, 04:03 PM
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Bird of Prey
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I want monetary compensation, or 10 free games a year (new releases I pick!)
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Apr 13, 2007, 11:52 PM
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#13 |
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The question now, is are you spending more then 50$/(Xbox Live Subscription) worth of electriicy a year on your idle PS3 workhorse
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System Specs
