PS3: For the good of humanity?
Published by punkass marc November 29th, 2006People who buy Sony’s new PlayStation 3 console, which hit U.S. stores last week, could help search for a cure to diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s by connecting their machines to the Internet.
The new PS3 machines are as powerful as supercomputers and can help Stanford University researchers speed up analysis of complex human protein structures, according to Nanako Kato of Sony’s gaming arm, Sony Computer Entertainment.
When the program — dubbed Cure@PLAYSTATION 3 — is launched, PS3 owners can contribute by registering their machines with Stanford, downloading specially designed software and leaving their machines online to process data when they’re not playing.
Kill people when you’re playing, save them when you’re not.
Suddenly bidding $100 million for a PS3 on eBay seems infinitesimally less cracked.
Lower tech versions of this program have been around since at least 2000, but versions that make use of the capabilities of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) such as that in the PS3 are new in 2006. In addition to support for the PS3’s GPU, Windows users can get a version for ATI video cards.
For what it’s worth, the Folding@Home project is probably a more productive use for your spare CPU cycles than the popular SETI screensaver, or the distributed client trying to break RSA encryption, or whatever other things might be out there.
There are quite a few. I installed a climate change one publicised by the BBC (based in Oxford), but uninstalled it when I realised my computer wasn’t fast/left on enough. It was a detailed simulation of the global climate from 1920 to 2050.
Downside: Gives family members a way to guilt trip you into putting the controller down once in awhile.