USAF using 2,000 PS3's

[wafflehammer]

U.S. Air Force building supercomputer from PS3s - Plugged In - Yahoo! Games

I really don't see the point in this...Why not just use a server farm or something? They say it's 95% more environmentally friendlier than using a super-computer ...I just don't see how lol

 

[Antec-User]

WTH?! I was Active Duty USAF for 6 years and I don't see the point to that either.. Leave "Human brain Duplication" to the pros at MIT or something. I could see MAYBE three of them used for a simulator for flight training or something, but even THOSE graphics processors are outperformed in today's 5970 Standards.. Not to mention the new NVidia platform soon to be unveiled.

That IS a darn waste of tax dollars.. And they complained about the price for the F22's and F35 platforms.. So they put the F22 production on hold for what??? To buy a LOT of Playstation 3's! WTH!?! And they cut manning DRASTICALLY a couple years ago to FUND the darn F22s!!

Oh.. I'm spreading this one to the MIL boards I'm on.. That is gonna irritate me the more I think about it..

 

[iFargle]

They forgot to mention they ordered 2,000 copies of Modern Warfare 2 as well

 

[wafflehammer]

yea seriously..this is half a million dollars for something I'm sure isn't new. I'm sure IBM , MIT, NASA, blah blah blah has something similar or better.....

 

[Antec-User]

^ $600,000... Must be nice.. I could see if it were for MWR, but for a basic experiment??! where is the Fraud Waste and Abuse policies in that sector?! arrrgh... irritating..

 

[patonb]

Its not as insane as you think..

Parts are easily avaliable, don't rely on highly sophisticated parts and can be hot swapped it seems.

I see 2 purposes of the project. 1st the brain thingy, second is the development of a supercomputer from common low cost items.

 

[iFargle]

If Sony still offered the Install Other OS option on the new PS3 Slims, we'd see quite a few more projects like this in the future. Too bad they don't anymore.. I don't get why they took that out.

 

[wafflehammer]

Yea..but how good is it's CPU ? I guess if it does the same work as like a $150+ quad that I guess this would be worth it. But still..all those blu-ray drives..disc space, and probably the GPU are going to waste :\

if it's that usable why doesn't sony just start making server farms with the PS3 processor so there is no wasted parts/cost on those parts :\

 

[95BlackGA]

They forgot to mention they ordered 2,000 copies of Modern Warfare 2 as well

I lol'ed. Hilarious.

 

[HAVOC]

IF they are trying to learn about how the human brain processes, they why not use human brains? Certainly some poor guy that has head duty this week would rather participate in some brain experiments rather than clean toilets?