SurfaceUnits
11-24-09, 04:43 PM
With an aim to building a supercomputer the US Air Force have just placed an order for 2200 PlayStation consoles.
The PlayStation 3s will be used at the Air Force Research Laboratory's information directorate in Rome, N.Y., where they will be added to an existing cluster of 336 PlayStation 3s being used to conduct supercomputing research.
The Playstation processors out perform multi core Xeon processors which have been used in the past to build supercomputers but have created slower and much more expensive systems. The new Cluster will be used by the US Air Force to processing multiple radar images into one higher resolution image.
Even a single PS3 can be used to significantly accelerate some computations. Marc Stevens, Arjen K. Lenstra, and Benne de Weger have demonstrated using a single PS3 to perform an MD5 hash attack in a few hours. They say: "Essentially, a single PlayStation 3 performs like a cluster of 30 PCs at the price of only one"(in nov 2007
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/us-air-forece-buy-2200-ps3.jpg
The Air Force will use the system to "to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications," including commercial and internally developed software specific to the PS3's Cell Broadband Engine processor architecture. The research will help the Air Force decide where Cell Broadband Engine processor-derived hardware and software could be used in military systems.
The Air Force has used the cluster to test a method of processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and "neuromorphic computing," or building computers with brain-like properties.
The PlayStation 3's eight-processor Cell powers other supercomputers, including the world's second-fastest, IBM's RoadRunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221900487
git yer game on
The PlayStation 3s will be used at the Air Force Research Laboratory's information directorate in Rome, N.Y., where they will be added to an existing cluster of 336 PlayStation 3s being used to conduct supercomputing research.
The Playstation processors out perform multi core Xeon processors which have been used in the past to build supercomputers but have created slower and much more expensive systems. The new Cluster will be used by the US Air Force to processing multiple radar images into one higher resolution image.
Even a single PS3 can be used to significantly accelerate some computations. Marc Stevens, Arjen K. Lenstra, and Benne de Weger have demonstrated using a single PS3 to perform an MD5 hash attack in a few hours. They say: "Essentially, a single PlayStation 3 performs like a cluster of 30 PCs at the price of only one"(in nov 2007
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/us-air-forece-buy-2200-ps3.jpg
The Air Force will use the system to "to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications," including commercial and internally developed software specific to the PS3's Cell Broadband Engine processor architecture. The research will help the Air Force decide where Cell Broadband Engine processor-derived hardware and software could be used in military systems.
The Air Force has used the cluster to test a method of processing multiple radar images into higher resolution composite images (known as synthetic aperture radar image formation), high-def video processing, and "neuromorphic computing," or building computers with brain-like properties.
The PlayStation 3's eight-processor Cell powers other supercomputers, including the world's second-fastest, IBM's RoadRunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221900487
git yer game on