US scientists intend to build a supercomputing network from idle PlayStation 3 boxes sitting in homes across the world in a unique distributed computing project aimed at understanding diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer. The cell processor in PS3 consoles is not only great at graphics rendering in games but is also particularly suitable for the more serious biological graphics applications involved in the fight against diseases.
Distributed computing is where idle computers receive some information from a central computer and process it while your not using your PC or its idle. One of the projects called folding@home (FAH), has already built a large distributed network of PCs to simulate the shape of proteins and examine how the way they fold may cause specific diseases. But now it seems the scientists at FAH want to enlist the PS3 consoles in homes across the world when they're not being used. Volunteers with PS3 boxes would download a piece of software that would enable FAH to use their processors when they're idle.It is believed that a network of 10,000 PS3 boxes would enable processing
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 1:02 AM
