Scientists say: PS3 to solve mental illness!

PS3 News | Yes, really. They're not even joking.

According to an article over at the BBC (note to disbelieving self: this is where my tax money is going), Sony's next-gen PlayStation 3 isn't just any old multimedia hub for games, movies and media. Nope - it's a multimedia hub with the processing power to help in the fight to cure Alzheimer's.

That's according to (surprise!) Sony and a group of white coats based in the US, who are considering daisychaining a number of PlayStation 3 units together to utilise the "spare processing power" of the console so that they can "examine how the shape of proteins, critical to most biological functions, affect disease." It's all part of a project called FAH (folding@home), apparently, and the science bods are already arguing that a network of PS3 units will be able to attain levels of performance akin to supercomputers, and hence make a contribution towards an Alzheimer's cure.

How many PS3s exactly? Er, 10,000 - so good luck getting those at launch, chaps. We're being rather cynical about this perhaps (it's an admirable cause, at least), but we smell a PR stunt. Even so, we'll point you in the direction of the full BBC article and let you decide for yourselves. After all, if the PS2 could help Iraq launch missiles, maybe there is some truth in this, eh?

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14 Comments

wobbler

5 years ago

Well we all know how advanced Iraq's missile program got with all those PS2s. At least with this stunt the people that they are supposed to help will forget all about it within a very short time. Perhaps Sony is after the Alzheimer's segment of the gaming market as they could sell games that are all the same with the 1 level repeated over and over and no body would know. They should also produce a pink PS3 to help cure breast cancer.

ZNMS

5 years ago

I wonder what would take up more room? A bunch of supercomputers or ten thousand Sony PlayStation 3 consoles?

Kaboth

5 years ago

To be fair PCs have been doing this for year. Donating spare processing power to projects such as SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and Cure for Cancer.

I suppose it would be possible if the PS3 had complete web browsing capabilities and Alzheimers association were given the tools or knowledge to apply distributed computing to online PS3s.

Supercomputers are mostly no longer used as they simply aren't ass efficient and cost productive as Distributed computing from hundreds or thousands of PCs.

Frozencry

5 years ago

Read this a couple of days ago, very amusing, although IMO I can see it happening with a processing behemoth such as Cell.

Echo

5 years ago

Yes. Interesting thought. But one would think no point to doing it with PS3s. Computers would be more efficient and easier. So im guessing that maybe, just maybe this is a publicity stint by sony?

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

First they could launch and guide missiles, now they're able to provide the cure for alzheimer's... I wonder what the hook for the PS4 will be?
"Our Scienceotologists have spent time analyzing the sheer force of power that the Playstation 4 games console outputs and have concluded that, harnessing only 1/4th of its power, it will be able to map and interpret the entire Human Genome in the time it takes to power up!"

You know what would make my more interested in getting your console at launch rather than waiting for a price drop and to see how it fares, Sony? How about just being confident in the quality of the hardware you've made to speak for and sell itself, rather than pushing out these stupid hype campaigns...

GooberMan

5 years ago

I wouldn't call this marketing. It would just be another use of the machine's online capabilities . The flexible nature of the Cell processor may even make it easier and faster to crunch the numbers instead of using general purpose processors like the x86 line. It may even be an easier job to get millions of console owners to leave their PS3's on at night crunching numbers than getting millions of "how does this thing work?" PC owners to do the same.

Sin Ogaris

5 years ago

It's certainately feasible, I mean it is just a CPU after all and if you string enough of them together you can have massive amounts of power to work with. I do agree that using PS3's as opposed to the normal methods is a bit of a stunt, but hey, whatever works.

Jellyfish

5 years ago

It's the only way the PS3 is going to use the Cell for what it was designed for

They already have the Cell chips in medical imaging equipment (blade servers?), this is just a less space efficient way of doing it.

themak

5 years ago

Kaboth wrote

Supercomputers are mostly no longer used as they simply aren't ass efficient and cost productive as Distributed computing from hundreds or thousands of PCs.

Mostly untrue.

Supercomputers are much more expensive than a regular pc, but that's to be expected. The amount of bandwidth available inside a super computer is far far more than the fastest broadband.

Yes, there are big distributed computing projects, but communal d. computing has not overtaken supercomputers in utility- with all major 3d animation rendered on one. And they are more efficient for research purposes, I can upload my code and pay x for the hours of proc time it uses. I know that the code will be run and I know that the information kept under my control.

Although distributed computing is making inroads, it hasn't replaced supercomputers and clusters. Not by a long shot.
[edit]
OK, they're building a cluster of PS3s. A supercomputer then. Can't see any special reason for PS3s, as 9/10 supercomputer owners agree that Apple makes the best nodes.

Rob_Jedi

5 years ago

Why do I feel a supercomputer would be cheaper than a bunch of PS3s?

GooberMan

5 years ago

Rob_Jedi wrote

Why do I feel a supercomputer would be cheaper than a bunch of PS3s?

What if it's a bunch of PS3's you don't purchase yourself? Folding@home is just like SETI@home - people download a program and run it when their machine is doing nothing for the chance of recognition if their machine is pivotal in the cause. They don't plan on purchasing the machines themselves. It'd make more sense to just buy 10,000 Cell processors instead if that were the case and construct a supercomputer out of that.

themak

5 years ago

Rob_Jedi wrote

Why do I feel a supercomputer would be cheaper than a bunch of PS3s?

Because you've no idea how expensive a supercomputer actually is.

realitybites

5 years ago

Scientists also confirmed the PS3 can solve the problem of having too much spare cash