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Boffin stacks 16 PS3s to simulate black hole collisions
The Register ^ | 28 February 2008 | Scott Snowden

Posted on 03/05/2008 11:40:02 AM PST by ShadowAce

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To: ShadowAce; rednesss
I will correct myself here. I guess we can have a say in exporting the PS3, since it's IBM's Cell processor in use.

I honestly have no idea how the law/legalities work in a situation like this.

21 posted on 03/05/2008 12:49:55 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce
Your Tag-line cracks me up every time I see it!
22 posted on 03/05/2008 1:08:36 PM PST by 2111USMC
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To: ShadowAce
They're networked together using an inexpensive Gigabit Ethernet switch.

That's not an optimal solution for cross CPU communication. I imagine the application must run something akin to SETI@Home where discreet units of calculations are distributed across the available CPUs with the results being returned over the network. Presumably 16 PS3s isn't the maximum number that could be used for the project.

23 posted on 03/05/2008 1:23:19 PM PST by Flashman_at_the_charge (There's no 'F' in 'Conservative GOP Candidates'.)
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To: Flashman_at_the_charge
That's not an optimal solution for cross CPU communication.

Depends on your price point, I suppose. He could have used IB and a $50,000 - $80,000 IB switch.

24 posted on 03/05/2008 1:26:07 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce

bkmark. thanks.


25 posted on 03/05/2008 1:32:49 PM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: ShadowAce

lol, that might be a tad ‘spendy’ for these lads.


26 posted on 03/05/2008 1:50:39 PM PST by Flashman_at_the_charge (There's no 'F' in 'Conservative GOP Candidates'.)
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To: ShadowAce
I'd like to see a desktop, or a laptop, with these cell processors in them.

It would be great as a secondary processor in place of the SIMD units (SSE, 3DNow) that's in modern chips, but it's not multi-purpose enough to be used as the main processor of a computer. Folding@Home only assigns PS3s those types of units it can handle.

27 posted on 03/05/2008 5:06:37 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Flashman_at_the_charge
Presumably 16 PS3s isn't the maximum number that could be used for the project.

Folding@Home has 32,577 PS3s doing work, many from the Free Republic team that currently ranks #50 out of 3,000 teams.

28 posted on 03/05/2008 5:10:35 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: rednesss

Somehow I don’t think the question is if they’re banned from export to those countries, but rather if the countries in question allow them to be imported... could you imagine a ‘good’ Muslim’s reaction to female video game characters?

Honestly, I wouldn’t really worry - if whoever wanted to simulate a nuclear explosion, sure they could wire a bunch of PS3’s together, but they could just buy computer parts off the internet and assemble them by hand, or wire a bunch of ‘normal’ computers together, the only real difference being the cost, and something tells me that if you have the money to build nuclear weapons, you have the money not to need to be cheap about how you get your computing power.


29 posted on 03/06/2008 1:55:53 PM PST by Hyzenthlay (I aim to misbehave.)
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