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.