U.S. Air Force Creates Powerful Supercomputer Out Of PS3s

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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What do you get when you string together 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems? What you get is called The Condor Cluster, capable of performing 500 TFLOPS, designed and built by the Air Force Research Laboratory….that’s what. :D
The computer will reportedly be used for quick processing of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, as well as research into artificial intelligence, radar enhancement and pattern recognition.
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lol, that airforce base is located about 10 min from my house.
 
The DDR in a PS3, is it ECC? With as little as 70 systems like that university, I wouldn't worry that much -- but 1760?
 
lol, did the AF not try to sue Sony when they took away the use of another OS with an update earlier this year.
 
sony gives the AF a custom firmware that let linux use all the power of the ps3.
 
Why do i keep reading this same story over and over? Are there really that many supercomputers out there made of PS3's linked together?
 
Wow, what a waste of time.

They could get together a bunch of 6 core amd machines with 5870s in them instead and run whatever they want and not be tied down to sony restrictions.

Plus they'd need a crapload less machines and power useage.

Getting together that many game machines to do that sort of work is in magnitudes of stupid waste of money.
 
I thought modding game consoles was against the law? Good thing they didn't use modded XBox's or they wind up in court.
 
MV75 said:
Wow, what a waste of time.

They could get together a bunch of 6 core amd machines with 5870s in them instead and run whatever they want and not be tied down to sony restrictions.

Plus they'd need a crapload less machines and power useage.

Getting together that many game machines to do that sort of work is in magnitudes of stupid waste of money.
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+1 thats exactly what I thought...
 
Is this the supercomputer that caused controversy with sony because they bought them all right after the ps3 price drop? I dont think this made much money for sony. If I am not mistaken, they make most of their money off of the games.
 
MV75 said:
Wow, what a waste of time.

They could get together a bunch of 6 core amd machines with 5870s in them instead and run whatever they want and not be tied down to sony restrictions.

Plus they'd need a crapload less machines and power useage.

Getting together that many game machines to do that sort of work is in magnitudes of stupid waste of money.
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apparently it was more efficient to use ps3's

It will also consume one-tenth the power of other comparably powered supercomputers, officials said.
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MV75 said:
Wow, what a waste of time.

They could get together a bunch of 6 core amd machines with 5870s in them instead and run whatever they want and not be tied down to sony restrictions.

Plus they'd need a crapload less machines and power useage.

Getting together that many game machines to do that sort of work is in magnitudes of stupid waste of money.
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Could you please quantify a crapload less for me? It entirely depends on the what type of processing they are doing but the PS3 is highly efficient for certain tasks. I guess you know more though.
 
infect0 said:
Could you please quantify a crapload less for me? It entirely depends on the what type of processing they are doing but the PS3 is highly efficient for certain tasks. I guess you know more though.
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Dude. A PS3 is a toy "computer". See the irony.
 
pigpen said:
Why do i keep reading this same story over and over? Are there really that many supercomputers out there made of PS3's linked together?
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I agree, I could has swear I read this story last year, the year before that, and the year even before that. :rolleyes:
 
It was pretty obvious the "6 core boy and 5870s" had no idea what he was talking about because he mentioned 5870s. I really doubt the airforce is using this for uber graphics and amazing AA.
 
LOL @ people who think this is a waste of time and how it's a "toy computer".

Stop hating on the PS3 for being a console. Get outside your tiny box and, y'know, think.

The power consumption the PS3 has in comparison to a "real" computer is much less, and the performance pretty much rivals it, simply because the hardware is specially designed for what they need it to do.

Not to mention cost: I am pretty confident that Sony gave them a sweet deal. The only downside I can think of is the heat -- my PS3 acts as a personal heater when I put my feet up on the desk and it's cold. I can't even begin to imagine what heat 1.7k of them generates.
 
If they just bought them from normal avenues and have the same user agreement as every owner of PS3s then I'm guessing they are breaking the law.

Have a hunch they probably have a contract with sony and have a far less restrictive user agreement(aka one that doesn't exist).
 
pigpen said:
Why do i keep reading this same story over and over? Are there really that many supercomputers out there made of PS3's linked together?
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same here.. The miltary has done this mahy times before

ICOM said:
Dude. A PS3 is a toy "computer". See the irony.
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The processor in the PS3 is a helluva lot better than you give it credit for.
 
oMek said:
lol, that airforce base is located about 10 min from my house.
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See if they're down for some Call of Duty multiplayer.

Just go to the front gate, ask the where the soldiers are and tell them you want to shoot people. That should get you in real fast.
 
We've known about it for a while, but the supercomputer went online recently. So, it still applies.
 
This is so when the internet kill switch turns on they can still play MoH multiplayer (which is totally not like real combat experience [but this means it totally is]) :eek: They can use DARPA to make it 880 player team multiplayer, and to hack the game so it looks nice, has playable frame rates and you fight "the taliban".
 
MV75 said:
Wow, what a waste of time.

They could get together a bunch of 6 core amd machines with 5870s in them instead and run whatever they want and not be tied down to sony restrictions.

Plus they'd need a crapload less machines and power useage.

Getting together that many game machines to do that sort of work is in magnitudes of stupid waste of money.
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+1.. I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure there is a much more efficient way of doing this with something other than a PS3. What a waste!
 
Negative Decibel said:
+1.. I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure there is a much more efficient way of doing this with something other than a PS3. What a waste!
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Please, read the article.

Using PS3s for the supercomputer's core allowed AFRL to construct the system for a total cost of $2 million, which Barnell estimates is five to 10 percent of an equivalent system built entirely with off-the-shelf computer parts. It will also consume one-tenth the power of other comparably powered supercomputers, officials said.
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I seem to remember when the ps3 came out that sony was bragging about it being able to do 2 TFLOPS versus the xbox 360's 1 TFLOP.
Seems strange that they could only get 500 out of 1760 ps3s.
 
Everyone forgets that consoles are sold at a loss.. They make money from the games.

Except this time there are no games being bought.
 
The ignorance and lack of reading in here is sickening. The PS3's Cell processor is very good - is can do a lot, if programmed well. There are other supercomputers based on the same architecture. For those who keep on ignorantly bitching about this costing too much, see the quote above me, FROM THE ARTICLE, about it saving a lot of money and power. :mad:

etmorgs42 said:
I seem to remember when the ps3 came out that sony was bragging about it being able to do 2 TFLOPS versus the xbox 360's 1 TFLOP.
Seems strange that they could only get 500 out of 1760 ps3s.
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That's probably due to overhead, sort of like how an SLI or Crossfire setup does not scale perfectly. You need assign calculations (or blocks of them) to each processor, which slows things down. I bet they also need to add more memory to the PS3s directly, or add additional offboard memory. The supercomputers I have seen typically have 24-96GB of memory per processor. That will also add overhead to the system.
 
Do any of you realize that the ps3 is over 4 years old and therefore obsolete? A fermi based tesla card would destroy the ps3 is supercomputing tasks. The air force is just doing this for publicity imo
 
jonny900 said:
Do any of you realize that the ps3 is over 4 years old and therefore obsolete? A fermi based tesla card would destroy the ps3 is supercomputing tasks. The air force is just doing this for publicity imo
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Consoles don't depreciate the same way that off the shelf computer parts do, dude. You're thinking about this in terms of graphical power -- the key here is the cell processor, not the RSX.
 
on second thought it doesnt even need to be a tesla card. any fermi card would destroy the ps3
 
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