Sony Considering PS3 Supercomputer-Grid

[Jimmy 2004]

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.

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[blobster21]

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

 

[ghost101]

Yep exactly. It will be PS3 owners footing the bill for private research ans Sony's commission.

 

[Bastieeeh]

The actual statistics of the Folding at home can be found over here:

F@H stats by OS used

Today's stats:

 

[Jimmy 2004]

That figure's fallen quite a bit even though the number of active CPUs has risen - what's up with that?

 

[kwchang007]

at least they're willing to pay people....

 

[zekrahminator]

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 .

 

[YorkieBen]

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

 

[anticlutch]

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 .

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.

So if the deals go through, a person would most likely sign a contract that lets them pay maybe... $200 for the PS3 as long as they provide x amount of hours per week dedicated to folding. I really hope this goes through as I wouldn't mind signing up for that

 

[jocksteeluk]

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.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

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.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I want monetary compensation, or 10 free games a year (new releases I pick!)

 

[newbielives]

The question now, is are you spending more then 50$/(Xbox Live Subscription) worth of electriicy a year on your idle PS3 workhorse