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PlayStation 3 cure-finding machine to get update

Sony Computer Entertainment was proud to let it be known that great progress has been made in the one month since PlayStation 3 became part of Stanford University's Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases.

"The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead. "Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases."

The PS3’s inherent skill at protein folding is largely due to its Cell Broadband Engine, which is amongst the fastest in the network and is bested only by the fastest GPUs. According to Sony, more than 250,000 unique PS3 users have registered to the program in just one month. PS3 users are delivering nearly 400 teraflops, representing more than half the computing capacity of the network's 700 teraflops at a single moment.

"We continue to be thrilled with the ongoing contributions of the PS3 user community in helping the Folding@home program study the causes of many different diseases that afflict our society," said Masayuki Chatani, Corporate Executive and CTO Computer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "As we move forward, we are issuing a call to action for all PS3 owners around the world to download the Folding@home application and help this cause. These PS3 fans can also be part of history as the Folding@home distributed computing program inches closer to achieving a petaflop - a measure of computing power that has never before been reached."

In related PS3 Folding@home news, tomorrow will see the release of an application update that will further enhance program by improving in folding calculation speeds, increasing visibility of user location on the globe and giving the ability for users to create longer donor or team names. PS3 users can download the new update version 1.1 by restarting the Folding@home application.

Earlier this month, IBM and Mayo Clinic announced that they have successfully adapted and tested the Cell Broadband Engine for use in medical imaging.

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*applause*
By therealnickdanger on 4/25/2007 3:50:39 PM , Rating: 2
That's cool stuff, to be sure. Next, Sony should release standalone CBE devices that cost $100 or something.




RE: *applause*
By danielfranklin on 4/25/07, Rating: -1
RE: *applause*
By lennylim on 4/25/2007 5:47:59 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
Like Sony actually care about diseases etc.

I don't see why not. The upper management must be pretty old, after all.

The cynical view of this is that Sony is only in it for the positive PR. But so what? It's a win-win situation. Sony is not forcing anyone to go buy a PS3 just to fold proteins.

I wonder how many of those active folders are being run by Sony themselves though. It should be trivial for their engineers to design a bare bones version of the PS3 without all the fluff just to run F@H.


RE: *applause*
By Dactyl on 4/25/2007 11:00:28 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
Like Sony actually care about diseases etc.
Welcome to our capitalist economy.

If everyone had to care before a disease got cured, we would still have smallpox and polio hanging around.

Here's a little Adam Smith for ya:
quote:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest
What does it mean? It means Sony doesn't have to care about making the world a better place in order for Sony to actually make the world a better place.

Be a good citizen, work hard at your job, don't rape people or go on shooting rampages, and the world will be a better place. Approximately 5-6 billion people have figured this out (it's pretty intuitive, really: be productive and don't be a dick).

The only people who don't get it are Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-Il, and whiny latte-sipping capitalism-hating high school students in America who have better lives than not just 97% of everyone alive, but 99.9% of everyone who has ever lived. Why do you have time to post on DailyTech? Shouldn't you be working in a coal mine or something? The party demands it!


RE: *applause*
By bubbacub616 on 4/26/2007 1:31:45 AM , Rating: 2
did he say something explicitly commie to make you go on a 'god bless america, etc.' rant?


RE: *applause*
By BZDTemp on 4/26/07, Rating: -1
RE: *applause*
By Ringold on 4/27/2007 1:03:50 PM , Rating: 2
Congratulations for showing you have no idea what he was refering to in the least.


RE: *applause*
By TheGreek on 5/1/2007 10:10:27 AM , Rating: 2
Hugo Chavez sent a tanker full of gasoline to Katrina victims. Bush sent Brownie.

So who really has a clue here?


RE: *applause*
By Milliamp on 4/25/2007 6:57:23 PM , Rating: 2
I think IBM is planning on this.


RE: *applause*
By PlasmaBomb on 4/25/2007 8:47:57 PM , Rating: 2
They already have Cell workstations on the market...


I know this is wrong but...
By RandomFool on 4/25/2007 3:58:25 PM , Rating: 5
It's good to know the PS3 is good for something other that watching movies.

Seriously, kudos to Sony for supporting a good cause.




RE: I know this is wrong but...
By danielfranklin on 4/25/07, Rating: -1
RE: I know this is wrong but...
By MPE on 4/25/2007 4:17:20 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. PS3 is a gaming console. Its intent is obvious. What ever it does above that is just gravy, especially if it helps PS3 sales and reputation.


RE: I know this is wrong but...
By keitaro on 4/25/2007 5:18:10 PM , Rating: 1
That's probably the only thing I'll give 'em props for. I personally do not like Sony or the PS3 as a system. But it's good that the PS3 can participate in F@H.


RE: I know this is wrong but...
By redbone75 on 4/26/2007 2:08:08 AM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't say that's the only thing I would give them props for. I give them props for simply having gotten to where they are, and I'm a Nintendo fan. Sony pretty much bought their way into the console world when Nintendo ruled and capitalized on Nintendo's mistakes (sticking with cartridges instead of cd's, not having a killer marketing engine, having a pricey business model for developers) and made video game history with the PSX. The PS2 did okay as well (a little sarcasm there) and the PS3, well, I believe it's a bit early in the life of this system to pass judgment on it. I personally would like to see many more PS3's sold just for the F@H contribution the PS3 owners can make. To be able to reduce a year-plus long simulation to a matter of weeks is wonderful for the medical community. Just imagine if all the "next gen" consoles could contribute to F@H how wonderful it would be for the medical community. Props to Sony, yes, but props, moreso, to the PS3 owners who decide to contribute to F@H. Way to go guys.


RE: I know this is wrong but...
By anonymo on 4/26/2007 9:49:53 AM , Rating: 2
I was gonna say...no wonder so many PS3s are contributing to the F@H project...what else would you do with it?


Cell's real strengths
By Aikouka on 4/25/2007 4:02:24 PM , Rating: 2
People may argue that Cell (Xenon as well) isn't as great for gaming as some may have you think, but it is great for number crunching as the SPEs do very well when they don't have execute branches. So I'm not surprised by this, but it's good to see!




RE: Cell's real strengths
By FITCamaro on 4/25/07, Rating: 0
RE: Cell's real strengths
By OxBow on 4/25/2007 5:28:58 PM , Rating: 2
First of all, I've experienced no problems, whatsover, in gaming on my PS3, so to say that the Cell isn't good for gaming is a little specious. It does this just fine, and once more games come out for it, I think most people will agree that the PS3 is a fine gaming machine. Expensive yes, but good at many different things INCLUDING gaming.

Stanford has a fairly comprehensive FAQ on how they compute the performance and TFlops. They are very clear that you can't just divide the TFlops by how many PS3's are "active" since both factors have different, not simply divisible, definitions. This is mainly due to the fact that some PS3's will work non-stop all the time, while others only work occasionally, and updates and reporting is very random. Any way you look at this, it's good news for Stanford and the advancement of science.

As for the 360, I feel that it's high time Microsoft stepped forward and joined in. The type of fan loyalty that each console generates could create a pretty useful competition with folding@home the real winner.


RE: Cell's real strengths
By PlasmaBomb on 4/25/2007 8:54:15 PM , Rating: 2
Stanford tend to be fairly unoptimistic when calculating TFlops of performance and do so on the basis of the returned workunits.


RE: Cell's real strengths
By FITCamaro on 4/25/2007 10:35:32 PM , Rating: 2
Where exactly did I say the PS3 or Cell was bad for gaming. Is Cell the best processor for games which involve tons of branching code? No. The PPC core driving Cell has horrible branch prediction the same as Xenon. An AMD X2 would be far better as the core of a gaming console.

But they're fast enough to get the job done and supply the graphics card with information to draw the scenes and make decisions for AI, physics, etc.