Technofyed

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/...ses_n.html Wrote:WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Blu-ray function is disabled, so no, you won't find Defense Department engineers on the job watching "Avatar" in high def while running classified satellite images through their new supercomputer that harnesses banks of Sony PlayStation video gaming consoles.

Also, the Defense engineers didn't go to Toys R Us or Sears to buy those 1,760 PlayStations. They worked directly with Sony and one of its distributors.

Thoughts?

I was under the impression that this was already done.

I remember when the PlayStation 3 was still being talked about, & IBM was going on & on about the ability to run the CPU in parallel for super computing. Initially, I want to say they said it would have 100 cores & was going to be unique. Something that the PC world had never seen before.

They certainly are living up to that. The only other time I've seen so many gaming consoles piled into one machine was thousands of defected Xbox 360's being dropped off at the landfill.

(01-24-2011 11:50 PM)no2pencil Wrote: [ -> ]I was under the impression that this was already done.

The only other time I've seen so many gaming consoles piled into one machine was thousands of defected Xbox 360's being dropped off at the landfill.

i agree with both these points

It sounds like the same project, no2:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/...ses_n.html Wrote:Air Force Research Lab's operation in Rome, N.Y.

I know that it's old news but it really wasn't publicized that much so I wanted to post it because it's neat.

Interesting. Why playstations?

Well to date they are the most powerful gaming consoles and as mentioned they are only $400 each. I read herethat they are as powerful as 30 computers. I suppose that such as statement is just all relative to interpretation but read this.

Quote:Look under the hood
The PS3’s Cell Broadband Engine processor, or Cell, is a heterogenous multiprocessor. Instead of identical cores - like the Intel and AMD multi-core processors - the Cell consists of a 64bit PowerPC core and 8 synergistic co-processor elements (SPEs).

Each SPE has 256 KB local store, a memory controller and a synergistic processing unit (SPU) with a Single Instruction, Multiple Data processing unit and 128 registers of 128 bits each. They’re connected by a bus with an internal bandwidth of more than 300 GB/s that transfers data between the SPEs.

The bottom line: you can go to Toys-R-Us and toss 200 GFlops into your shopping cart.

Essentially a PS3 is a tiny supercomputer. But really I suppose that you could do the same thing by putting together several thousand PCs and programming them to run in parallel. Really all a super computer is are parts from thousands of computers thrown together. They are mostly comprised of CPUs and GPUs. Each PS3 has a bunch of both.

Back in college when I was in senior seminar a classmate programmed I think 8 older desktops to operate in parallel. When he was done with them the physics department was going to use it for number crunching. That was no small feat because he had to compile his own customized linux kernel to put in each system to do the job. That said I find it entirely plausible although it isn't as powerful as a real supercomputer.

At a Linux Users meeting (some years ago, now) there was a presentation done by a local computer manufacturer that built mini-super computers. They used gigabit ethernet to run quad motherboards with dual core CPUs to run a beowulf cluster within a single box. The selling point was that though expensive, was far cheaper than running an actual super computer. So a company could run rigorous tests on this machine before determining if a super computer would meet their needs or not.

I know I still have their information at my office. If I remember I'll throw their URL on this topic.

(01-26-2011 11:55 PM)no2pencil Wrote: [ -> ]At a Linux Users meeting (some years ago, now) there was a presentation done by a local computer manufacturer that built mini-super computers. They used gigabit ethernet to run quad motherboards with dual core CPUs to run a beowulf cluster within a single box. The selling point was that though expensive, was far cheaper than running an actual super computer. So a company could run rigorous tests on this machine before determining if a super computer would meet their needs or not.

I know I still have their information at my office. If I remember I'll throw their URL on this topic.

That's it. He did a Beowulf cluster.