PS3 Lifts Folding@Home to almost 700 Teraflops

[Jimmy 2004]

The introduction of the PS3 as a Folding@Home client has now helped the project to reach an impressive 693 teraflops of processing power, with 390 coming from PS3 consoles alone (despite only accounting for 11.4% of active processors). This figure is a significant improvement on the 367 TFLOPS being contributed by Sony's new console last month - the continued support from everyone who participates in the project helps Stanford University research cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, along with many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Anyone wishing to become involved in the project should take a look at techPowerUp!'s own F@H team which currently stands in 741st place out of 62360 teams contributing. It is completely free (other than electricity and internet costs) and will put your idle processing power to good use.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Exceededgoku]

yeah! use that Cell CPU for what it's meant to be used! (*hint* server applications, not games...)

 

[Aguiar]

yeah! use that Cell CPU for what it's meant to be used! (*hint* server applications, not games...)

dont be nasty...u put your machine at Folding and you´ll see what that is capable of...then compare it with the power of PS3,maybe you´ll get a bench for your expensive machine.

 

[Benpi]

Yea, then put a game like CoD3 on your PS3, and compare it with your less expensive Xbox360. You'll find another bench....

 

[Steevo]

The cell processor is no doubt very powerful for the intended uses, and perhaps some games that might use the full capability might be very fun.



But games like


Simulated folding!!!! (Now Multi-player!)
MySQL Online multi-player!!!
Long string math theory!! (Can you get the answer be fore the computer?)



Those don't interest me.



But it is nice that such a powerful processor is being used for something good.

 

[Exceededgoku]

dont be nasty...u put your machine at Folding and you´ll see what that is capable of...then compare it with the power of PS3,maybe you´ll get a bench for your expensive machine.

My machine doesn't have a server processor like teh PS3... otherwise it would suck for gaming. If I wanted a machine with high integer processing I would get one...

 

[WarEagleAU]

The PS3 is a remarkable piece of gaming goodness and to me (as I own an Xox360 and more recently a PS3) handily beats the 360, TO ME. Now, I am not biased, as the 360 has a better LIVE deal, Games (currently) but thats about it. It doesnt look better, not to me and both are great for their purpose. I have the Folding@home client on my PS3 and love that it does that. But, aside from the heat output, the xbox 360 doesnt trounce the PS3 in my eyes. Fanboism aside, its the 360 games library (some great rts, fps and such) trumps PS3s right now.


Back on point. Nice to see such a powerful machine helping good causes. Though I think they should have figured something out by now. Look to the rainforests. Im sure many cures are lying there, waiting to be discovered. Its something I strongly believe in.

 

[jocksteeluk]

comparing thousands of pc's with varied specs to thousands of ps3's all with super computer style cpus would be quite difficult to get legitimate comparisons of the two formats

 

[wickerman]

comparing thousands of pc's with varied specs to thousands of ps3's all with super computer style cpus would be quite difficult to get legitimate comparisons of the two formats

Especially considering most people like to fold using older hardware they no longer have a need for or are not worth trying to resell. Most people I know fold with their older PIII boxes or Athlonxp boxes, some of em (like me) also use older pentium 4 chips (2x 1.8ghz p4 and a 2ghz celeron) which hardly compare to any modern cpu. I could probably replace all my older boxes with a single x2 or core 2 and still see an increase in my ppd. My x2 3800 (2.6), core 2 e6300 (2.4) and pentium d940 (3.2) make up the back bone of my farm, but even with that its nothing compared to what you could get out of a larger dedicated server.

I recall reading IBM wanted blade servers using the cell processor even before the PS3 was released knowing full well its power.
Either way, the work units the PS3 (and the ATI client) perform are not as numerous as the x86 units, so by no means should everyone who likes to fold replace all their PCs with PS3s just to get more points cause in the end it doesnt do as much good for the project as a whole.

 

[Kreij]

I think all PC owners should start scouring garage sales and used item stores for old PC that can be dedicated to folding. If we get enough of them online the PC could beat out the PS3 at folding.

Not that I have anything against the PS3s, I just think competition is healthy

 

[Mussels]

As people have said, most people use older hardware. I dont fold anymore, but when i did i used my older systems too.

You can imagine that a conroe or kentsfield could quite happily trounce a PS3... oh and those who rant about it? dont forget the PS3 uses specially designed work units, not the same x86 ones PC users get - direct comparisons are impossible.
(The ATI work units are teh same deal - designed for teh GPU's)