1. While one PS3 costs $500, a single supercomputer can cost $5000. The cost of eight PS3s is incredibly negligible compared to the massive cost of traditional supercomputers.

500 x 8 = 4000
Single supercomputer = 5000

I fail to see how that's "incredibly negligible". But good work Sony!

Posted at 7:22PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Frank

2. An astrophysicist recently linked eight PS3 systems together and was able to compute the same amount of data as 200 supercomputers.

200 * 5000 = 1000000

Posted at 7:28PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Joe

3. OMG PS3ez is teh l33t!!

Posted at 7:29PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Arno

4. #2, my old Pentium 200Mhz can compute the same amount as 200 super computers, it's just gonna take a really, really long time.

By the way, the comment before was a sarcastic remark at this piece of news from a site that absolutely needs to post something positive to make silly PS3 owners feel better about their purchase. Poor souls...

Posted at 7:31PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Arno

5. Of course you forget (or never knew in the first place) when determining how well a machine "computes", efficiency is also a factor. Your 200mhz is not very efficient and therefore fails.

In other news, you must be bored to be trolling. No good games out for your system of choice?

Posted at 7:36PM on Oct 17th 2007 by risrepkel

6. Whats the definition of a super computer.. some gaming laptops cost more than that.

Posted at 7:44PM on Oct 17th 2007 by phattie

7. where is the logic in saying a pentium can do the same amount of work?

and since you obviously like the 360 more, there's a 360fanboy website just for you, stay over there.

its stupid to take a side, if you don't own all 3 consoles, you're only cheating yourself and are therefore an idiot

Posted at 7:45PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Joe

8. where is the logic in saying a pentium can do the same amount of work?

and since you obviously like the 360 more, there's a 360fanboy website just for you, stay over there.

its stupid to take a side, if you don't own all 3 consoles, you're only cheating yourself and are thereforean idiot

Posted at 7:48PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Joe

9. WHOA,. so how's this gravitational research gonna benifit me has a Gamer?(that being the reason i got a PS3)

Posted at 7:50PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Tim Parsons

10. well look at that, stupid multiple comments.

but yes, price is certainly not a factor when it comes to being a supercomputer. google search it :)

Posted at 7:50PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Joe

11. @9: Well, apparently the ps3 can handle realistic physics, gamers like that, right? Jeez.

While I'm here, he didn't replace 200 supercomputers, he replaced 200 supercomputer nodes. BIG difference. Also, the supercomputers didn't cost $5000 (think about it), what cost $5000 was *each use* of those 200-500 nodes.

Posted at 8:00PM on Oct 17th 2007 by apease

12. Fine. But does it play any games besides Let's Count Intergalactic Sand?

I guess this means that programming PS3 IS rocket science.

Posted at 8:26PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Edge

13. Here is the link to the research: http://gravity.phy.umassd.edu/ps3.html

Now this is too cool: Quoted **
"The interest in the PS3 really was for two main reasons," explains Khanna, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth who specializes in computational astrophysics. "One of those is that Sony did this remarkable thing of making the PS3 an open platform, so you can in fact run Linux on it and it doesn't control what you do."

He also says that the console's Cell processor, co-developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba, can deliver massive amounts of power, comparable even to that of a supercomputer -- if you know how to optimize code and have a few extra consoles lying around that you can string together.

"The PS3/Linux combination offers a very attractive cost-performance solution whether the PS3s are distributed (like Sony and Stanford's [email protected] initiative) or clustered together (like Khanna's), says Sony's senior development manager of research and development, Noam Rimon.

According to Rimon, the Cell processor was designed as a parallel processing device, so he's not all that surprised the research community has embraced it. "It has a general purpose processor, as well as eight additional processing cores, each of which has two processing pipelines and can process multiple numbers, all at the same time," Rimon says.
**

Now, this is the kind of thing that gets me off! I love hearing about unusual applications and technical uses for gadgets, and the PS3 is one of the most powerful gadgets out there. =)

Posted at 8:32PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Consolcwby

14. @Edge: All game programming IS science - COMPUTER SCIENCE. =/ Only an untrained M$ monkey wouldn't know that... Hate now, buy later. I suppose that's the motto you live by, isn't?...

Posted at 8:32PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Consolcwby

15. "if you don't own all 3 consoles, you're only cheating yourself and are thereforean idiot"

I love Thereforeian arguments!

I'm just going to let that sink in for a second. "If you don't spend too much money on the losing system, you must be an idiot."

I guess when I get the $199 PS3 off the clearance rack at Toys R Us in 3 years, I'll still be an idiot. Poor me.

Posted at 8:36PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Edge

16. Edge...

I truly could give a dry hump about what you bought for you 360 today. How about we stay on topic.

PS3 or Supercomputing is the current topic...not fluffed up PS2 ports.

Posted at 8:49PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Kspraydad

17. Can't you do something about this Edge troll?

On topic, this is mildly interesting, but I'd rather hear your views on the GT5 Prologue delay.

Posted at 8:59PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Bored

18. Consolcwby:

Dude. Lame. I make a point and you go straight for the personal attack.

R-ock-ett-sci-ence. As in harder than regular science.

Ya, buy later. Much later.

Everything I want is on 360, and increasingly less on PS3. I just picked up Beautiful Katamari today. Can you say that?

Posted at 9:04PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Edge

19. While this sounds cool, it's actually bad news for Sony. The PS3 is a drastic loss leader. Every console sold that isn't by accompanied numerous copies of software is a sizeable hit to Sony's bottom line. The scientific community buying up PS3s for use as cheap computational machines is actually bad news for Sony, and in turn, Sony fans.

Posted at 9:11PM on Oct 17th 2007 by upz

20. "Everything I want is on 360, and increasingly less on PS3. I just picked up Beautiful Katamari today. Can you say that?"

yes actually. ive been playing it on my psp for some time now.

good to see things never change around here though. there are still just as many cranky/whiney/vaginal-bleeding xbox fanboys as ever.


pssst... edge.... your stupidity is showing.

Posted at 9:17PM on Oct 17th 2007 by Microdot