Not to be outdone by its grandfather, the PS3 also has an ace up its sleeve: It can be used as a makeshift supercomputer that rivals rigs thousands of dollars more expensive in terms of power—providing you have a few of them and the know-how to wire them together.For just $4,000, you can build a supercomputer of immense power by linking together several dozen consoles. Though that may seem a little steep, we should point out that you normally need to rent time on a supercomputer for a dollar an hour. Again, that seems cheap, but when you realize a single calculation or simulation can take thousands of hours, it quickly becomes apparent that the PS3 supercomputer is a viable, cheaper alternative. Not to mention that it can be used to play Blu-rays when you’re bored.In fact, because the PS3 was originally able to be loaded with Linux, clever people realized that they could outsource massive calculations to the millions of Playstations across the globe, and use their computational clout while inactive to solve problems like curing cancer. The researchers who developed the app that could do this calculated that just 10,000 PS3s working in tandem would rival the world’s most powerful supercomputer. However, since Sony stopped people from being able to install Linux on their console, this is no longer the case. When we don’t cure cancer, you know who to blame.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 20:10:53 +0000
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