PS3 Helps Folding@Home Project to a Petaflop

[Jimmy 2004]

The Folding@Home project has now managed to exceed one petaflop of processing power, thanks largely to the introduction of Sony's PlayStation 3 console last year. The project is currently operating at 1152 teraflops, with 889 teraflops being contributed by the PS3 and Windows based machines being closest competitor with just 164 teraflops. This means that over three-quarters of the processing power for Folding@Home is being provided by the PS3 due to the console's Cell Broadband Engine. Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University said the following:

The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@Home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped. Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases.

The Folding@Home project runs simulations in protein folding, which are helping scientists work towards cures for illnesses such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and certain forms of cancer. If you want to contribute to the project, you should take a look at the Folding@Home website and techPowerUp!'s Folding@Home team - all it requires is an internet connection and your idle processing power.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jess Stingray]

Yay for F@H! This makes me want to start folding again... ah hell, I'll do it.

 

[substance90]

they don`t mention that dual-core windows machines do the most complex proteins I fold all the time when I`m not busy on my Intel C2D. Makes me feel better thinking that these stuff might help save lives some day.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Wow, that is awesome. I wonder if they have made any progress on any of this? I fold on my pc and on my ps3 <G<>

 

[Seany1212]

Is it supposed to be incredibly slow? Me being a n00b to this i dont know what to expect but using an x2 3800+ is it ok to only have completed 150,000 out of 5,000,000 after6 hours?

 

[Helvetica]

I wonder if folding at home has EVER contributed to medical science in any way. The reason there's so much F@H activity on the PS3 is because there's absolutely nothing to do. Once FF13 is released, F@H on the PS3 will be reduced to 0 flops.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Yep... it's pretty slow AFAIK - haven't used it for a while though.

 

[panchoman]

http://folding.stanford.edu/results.html for those who want to know how folding has contributed to science, remember that this stuff is very hard and complex, and even with so much power, it still takes time, and they have to piece together all the projects and see if there is anything there, and many times its not there, so you know...

 

[ex_reven]

Doesnt folding leech bandwidth?

If the work units are large, Id probably go over my monthly quota.

 

[Fuse-Wire]

great news, at last the ps3 has a use!! its a bit of a bugger that i cant get F@H working cos im on the old mans pc with minimal leeway!! awell there has to be a way pass the admin block to install it, also because i want to submit some HWbot scores!!