http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/u-s-air-force-building-supercomputer-from-ps3s/1387199

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/ga/buzz/feature/vg25/usaf-ps3_300.jpg

No doubt the Air Force purchasing department gets some odd requests from time to time, but we'd love to have seen the grin on the face of the officer tasked with procuring some 1,700 Playstation 3s for a USAF facility in Rome, NY.

Before you complain about your tax dollars being spent on toys, the machines aren't for gaming. Instead, the facility -- an Air Force research lab -- will join them into a parallel-computing cluster that, when complete, will number well over 2,000 PS3s.

The supercomputer -- snappily monikered "500 TeraFLOPS Heterogeneous Cluster" -- will be put to work playing 2,000 simultaneous games of God of War III. Wait, no. Among other things, they'll be attempting to simulate the way the human brain processes information and how it pulls off the remarkably difficult task of recognizing the content of images.

"Humans can routinely do these things, but a computer struggles to do it," the facility's computing director Mark Barnell told Stars and Stripes. "In a general sense, we are interested in making it autonomous."

The cluster won't be as powerful as a regular supercomputing rig, but it will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly: it'll consume as much as 95% less electrical power and shut down unused machines when the cluster isn't running at full capacity.

thats actually a really cool concept, choosing 2k ps3s over perhaps 2k other computers.

makes me love my ps3

So the Air Force knows how to take advantage of the PS3 CPU, but not most game developers? Interesting...

I think it'd look cooler with 1700 Xbox 360, it'd be like a Xmas decoration with all the red rings lol

I kid, I kid

So the Air Force knows how to take advantage of the PS3 CPU, but not most game developers? Interesting...

I think it'd look cooler with 1700 Xbox 360, it'd be like a Xmas decoration with all the red rings lol

I kid, I kid

2 weeks ago I would have been annoyed at that joke. I owned an Xbox 360 for several years without an issue......
Until last week I go to trade it in on a PS3 at gamestop. Thing red ringed when they hooked it up to test it. That was embarrasing! I guess the short ride in the car shook it enough to cause the issue. :dunno:

So I fixed it myself(penny fix) tested it for several hours and then traded it in at a different gamestop. And no...I dont feel that was wrong. Gamestop has made thousands off me over the years....and rapes me everytime I trade in a game or system.

Lol, good stuff.

Though it would be FAR cheaper to harness the power of modern GPUs. The ATI 5870 has 1600 cores and can process 2.7 TFlops/sec...

Even at retail prices it would be 200,000 for a GPU solution vs. 600,000 for a PS3 solution.

I read an article online about this a week or two ago and they said that because of the processor and chipsets in the PS3 it was actually cheaper to go this way than to buy the parts. The claim was that Sony sells these at a loss and makes money on add-ons and games.

Gamestop has made thousands off me over the years....and rapes me everytime I trade in a game or system.

so you continually return there and give them business...

as i recall the old saying, "Cannot rape the willing."

as i recall the old saying, "Cannot rape the willing."

that phrase is complete bullshit. complete bullshit. anyone who believes that is a complete asshole. christ...

i'd like to see whoever believes that get raped and see if it changes their mind. go read "a woman in berlin" or any of the dozens of books about accounts. christ... that saying is bullshit.
----- digress -----

the ps3 supercomputer is definitely pretty sweet. i wonder what the power differential is to a real supercomputer, they mentioned it saved up to 95% the energy, but if it only has 5% of the computing power its not a real gain..

psst... Kersh4w, that's why it's called WILLING.

Rape is something that happens to a person that IS NOT willing.

note the difference. in relation to this post: the guy keeps going back. therefore, he is a willing participant. note that: willing... funny how that pops up now and again... willful participation isn't rape.

now, here's a step stool to help you to get down... that's quite a tall horse you got there.

sorry, i interpreted it differently than you meant. and yes, i have a huge chip on my shoulder about that. i've just read too many things. i can see you meant it differently.

i just dont think any jokes related to rape at all, are funny. so i tend to get very reactionary.

This sounds like the beginning of SkyNET.

thats pretty cool

Not sure where I originally came across it, but the exporting of PS3s is an issue because of their ability to be configured in this way. Here (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_6_64/ai_62685309/) is something similar regarding PS2s when they came out. Kind of scary to think someone could build a missile guidance system out of PS3s.

If you read up on Cell processors (the processor that Sony created for the PS3) you'll understand why they're using PS3's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29
http://forums.jetcareers.com/images/smilies/tmyk.jpg

If you read up on Cell processors (the processor that Sony created for the PS3) you'll understand why they're using PS3's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29
http://forums.jetcareers.com/images/smilies/tmyk.jpg

The Cell Broadband Engine—or Cell as it is more commonly known—is a microprocessor designed to bridge the gap between conventional desktop processors (such as the Athlon 64, and Core 2 families) and more specialized high-performance processors, such as the NVIDIA and ATI graphics-processors (GPUs).

Still leaves me asking why they didn't use GPUs, :lol:

Its actually nothing new, plus a professor is the one that figured it out, then the air force tried it. Downside is you need the old PS3's, the slims dont support linux.

http://www.physorg.com/news92674403.html

But I agree with static, GPU's would be faster, but cheaper?

Here is a link to why it was the ps3 instead of gpu.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/PS3-Roadrunner-supercomputer,5688.html

sorry, i interpreted it differently than you meant. and yes, i have a huge chip on my shoulder about that. i've just read too many things. i can see you meant it differently.

i just dont think any jokes related to rape at all, are funny. so i tend to get very reactionary.

understandable bud and whole-heartedly agree... however, the OP plainly stated that Gamestop has repeatedly done things to him sexually, against his will... yet he continues to return to said offender of his own volition.

:icon_tup:

we're good.

:grouphug:

going to threadjack my own thread but it is computer related. this obviously would not be cost prohibitive.

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