Here’s a cool factoid that’s a testament to the power of the PlayStation 3: the U.S. Airforce has used Sony’s console to construct an extremely powerful supercomputer for a relatively cheap price. According to UPI:
The U.S. Air Force used 1,760 Sony Playstation 3 video game consoles to create a supercomputer at about a tenth the normal cost for such a setup, officials say.
Named the Condor Cluster and to be unveiled Wednesday, it’s the fastest interactive computer the Defense Department has, the Air Force said.
Part of me wishes I was still at G4tv just so I could post this article and watch the flame wars. “PS3 am more powerfulz than Xbox 360! The Navy uses it! February 27th!!! Fore!!!”
Thats pretty resourceful.
1760 ps3s? that'll cause some damage on the NPD reports…
ps3 is teh winnzerest
Too bad the NPD report is so watered down as to be completely useless now….
It’s probably a smarter move for NPD. It can charge a lot for that data and companies will buy it.
Still sucks.
It's impressive now, but wait until the North Koreans do the same thing!
they'd just start playing starcraft and totally forget what they were doing
That's South Korea. They can't afford to play StarCraft in North Korea.
north korea is teh poorz
Random question for you, dear Thundercracker. Has anyone used your handle and tried to refute a point you made by changing the lyrics to "Uncle Fucka" from the South Park movie?
i honestly have no idea what you are talking about…..what site was this?
Not talking about a particular site. The song just popped in my head and your handle fits into it.
ahhh i understand…sorry sir, its my bedtime, my mind doesnt work at 10 am
I remember hearing about this a year or so ago. Although I don't think the initial number of PS3s was that high, the Air Force has been adding to this supercomputer for a few years now.
Ah found it!!
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=…
Meanwhile the Chinese are building actual super computers…
(read that in the super friends/justice league voice)
Well, those guys can afford it. Ha!
So basically they ripped the PS3 cell chips out and put them in their own machine(s?). That's one way to work around the PS3's slow GPU.
@Sandrock
No they installed Linux on them all and then networked them together so they run as one large PC, much the same way it works when you connect to all of the other PCs and PS3s running Folding@Home. They started off with a little under 400 a year ago and have vastly ramped it up to 1700+.
I assume it will not be getting any large since they cannot use the slim models with this type of setup.
It was just a quick jab at the old flame wars for old times sake.
I vaguely remember Ken Kutaragi saying something about PS3s being used to control nuclear missiles. Anyone else remember that? Or am I just scared of North Korea?
Unless China sOld them equipment I wouldn't be too worried how far 30 Koreans can toss a warhead.
@slicky
Guess they didn't get the update lol
@SG
HAHA. No i looked into that too. There system isn't connect to any outside networks.