PlayStation 3 enlisted in disease fight

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Banjo

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Sony is set to update software for its PlayStation 3 video game console to improve downloads from its online network, connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse — and try to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer.

The latest version of the company's system software for the PS3 includes code that enables PS3 owners to let the Folding @ home project at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., use the machine's powerful Cell processor to study how proteins assemble.

The Folding @ home project links computers over the internet with the help of a small program that runs when the system is idle, and uses the networked or distributed processing power to simulate complex problems that would take months or years to work through. Anyone with a recent PC and a broadband internet connection can download the software and participate.

Understanding how proteins assemble or fold, and why they sometimes fold incorrectly, or misfold, could be a key to understanding the origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Lou Gehrig's, Parkinson's, mad cow and its human equivalent Creutzfeld-Jakob.

"This upcoming firmware update not only delivers capabilities that gamers are asking for, such as enhanced downloading, it also enables us to tap into the PS3 community for the Folding @ home project, leveraging the power of PS3's technology and the ever-expanding reach of our user base to help researchers find cures for diseases," Peter Dille, senior vice-president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in a written statement e-mailed to CBC News Online.
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Quite amazing, isn't it? Once I download the firmware update, I'll sign up for the Folding @ home project.
 
I have the Folding@Home now installed in my Suri this morning. At least the PS3 has something to do while its asleep.

I can imagine a whole boatload of PS3's computing power pretty almost equal that of the latest hot rod CRAY supercomputers.


banjo, FYI u will download an extra 50 megs for the Folding@Home after the 1.6 FW update.
 
sablescort said:
I have the Folding@Home now installed in my Suri this morning. At least the PS3 has something to do while its asleep.

I can imagine a whole boatload of PS3's computing power pretty almost equal that of the latest hot rod CRAY supercomputers.


banjo, FYI u will download an extra 50 megs for the Folding@Home after the 1.6 FW update.
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Same here, downloaded it a few hours ago. I like the graphics of the Earth, pretty nice. :)
 
What Folding@Home looks on a PS3:

a5e.jpg
 
Hoollliiee shhhiittt The results on Folding@Home showed PS3 is kicking PC ass when it comes to doing work units.

Take a look at this:

Folding@Home

OS Type Current TFLOPS* Active CPUs Total CPUs
Windows 151 158869 1624349
Mac OS X/PowerPC 7 8709 95316
Mac OS X/Intel 7 2692 7176
Linux 35 24914 215608
GPU 40 682 2170
PLAYSTATION®3 204 8340 9274
Total 444 204206 1953893


Total number of non-Anonymous donators = 616842
Last updated at Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:40:54
DB date 2007-03-23 00:38:32
Active CPUS are defined as those which have returned WUs within 50 days. Active GPUs are defined as those which have returned WUs within 10 days (due to the shorter deadlines on GPU WUs). Active PS3's are defined as those which have returned WUs within 2 days.
*TFLOPS is actual flops from the software cores, not the peak values from CPU/GPU specs.
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Whoooa 8K PS3's made 204 TFLOPS compared to 159k Windows PC doing only 151 TFLOPS.

That Cell processor is sure damn powerful so it looks like a cure may be waay sooner than we think.
 
Folding@Home

Here's mine....

How about yours?

Actually, I just founded a team for the Blu-Ray.com members and calling it "Blu-Ray.com". I expect people will be joining the team sometimes soon from the Blu-Ray.com forum. Feel free to join if you want to. The team number is 56895.
 
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sablescort said:
Whoooa 8K PS3's made 204 TFLOPS compared to 159k Windows PC doing only 151 TFLOPS.

That Cell processor is sure damn powerful so it looks like a cure may be waay sooner than we think.
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DAMN IMPRESSIVE!
 
At least PS3 got something else to do other than just video gaming.
 
Now it's at 367 TFLOPS with over 14,000 PS3 units... Windows is still at 151 TFLOPS.
 
Now it's 16,464 active PS3 units with a current TFLOP rate of 403 compared to the current rate of 152 for 159,303 computers running Windows.
 
Now Bill Gates is gonna really wet his pants once he gets the news that the PS3 is really making Windows look so slow. 151K PC's doing only 151 TFLOPS compared to 14k PS3 running at over 400 TFLOPS. The scientists are gonna be very happy campers about the PS3 participating in the project.

I think M$ will have to let the 360's in Folding@Home in order to compete with the PS3 to see how much TFLOPS they can generate among the big 2 consoles (excluding wii)


Sony is making a smart move by letting the Suri's participate in a worthy cause.
 
sablescort said:
Now Bill Gates is gonna really wet his pants once he gets the news that the PS3 is really making Windows look so slow. 151K PC's doing only 151 TFLOPS compared to 14k PS3 running at over 400 TFLOPS. The scientists are gonna be very happy campers about the PS3 participating in the project.

I think M$ will have to let the 360's in Folding@Home in order to compete with the PS3 to see how much TFLOPS they can generate among the big 2 consoles (excluding wii)


Sony is making a smart move by letting the Suri's participate in a worthy cause.
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Now it's 435 TFLOPS from 17,770 PS3 units. Niceee. It just keep going up, up, up and up!
 
OK I got Alex's approval to set up an AD team for Folding@Home.

The team is "AllDeaf Folder Team" the team number you need in order to join is 58141.

Anybody running a Windows PC, Linux PC, Mac or a PS3 can join the team and help hurry a lot of cures our way.

visit here to get information:

Folding@Home Distributed Computing

I chose to use my Suri instead of my laptop as the PS3 can make faster output of data than an AMD64 will do.

Mods please make this thread a sticky if y'all dont mind ;)
 
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