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03-16-2007, 12:38 AM
PS3 Supercomputing Cluster- 4 Times Faster than IBM’s BlueGene/L
*By Dan Nicolae Alexa, 09:02 PM, March 15th 2007
Sony puts PS3’s Cell CPU to work in a joint scientific project with Stanford University, called Folding@home, which is different from the newly announced HOME online entertainment service.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that all PLAYSTATION 3 consoles will have the capability to connect to Stanford University’s Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases.
Currently, the project harnesses the capacity of thousands of PCs to examine how the shape of proteins, critical to most biological functions, affects diseases.
FAH (folding@home) says a network of PS3's will allow performance similar to supercomputers.
Stanford University is thus leveraging PS3’s powerful Cell Broadband EngineTM (Cell/B.E.) – and what will be an even more powerful distributed supercomputing network of PS3 systems – to help study the causes of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.
Because the process of folding proteins is so complex, computers are used to perform simulations to study the process. Since these simulations can take up to 30 years for a single computer to complete, Folding@home enables this task to be shared among thousands of computers connected via the network, utilizing distributed computing technology. Once the data is processed, the information is sent back via the Internet to the central computer. The Cell/B.E. processor inside each PS3 is roughly 10 times faster than a standard mainstream chip inside a personal computer (PC), so researchers are able to perform the simulations much faster, speeding up the research process.
A standard PC working alone would take a day to simulate 1 billionth of a second of protein folding. But scientists believe that 10,000 idle PS3s can be four times faster than IBM's BlueGene/L System, which cranks out 280.6 trillion calculations per second. And if Sony could actually sell the PS3 with as much success as the PS2, imagine what 100 million units could do.
“Millions of users have experienced the power of PS3 entertainment. Now they can utilize that exceptional computing power to help fight diseases,” said Masayuki Chatani, Corporate Executive and CTO Computer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “In order to study protein folding, researchers need more than just one super computer, but the massive processing power of thousands of networked computers. Previously, PCs have been the only option for scientists, but now, they have a new, more powerful tool—PS3.”
“We’re thrilled to have SCE be part of Stanford University’s Folding@home project,” said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. “With PS3 now part of our network, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world’s most life-threatening diseases.”
According to a Stanford University statement: “The PS3 client will also support some advanced visualization features. While the Cell microprocessor does most of the calculation processing of the simulation, the graphic chip of the PLAYSTATION 3 system (the RSX) displays the actual folding process in real-time using new technologies such as HDR and ISO surface rendering. It is possible to navigate the 3D space of the molecule using the interactive controller of the PS3, allowing us to look at the protein from different angles in real-time.”
Thanks to new computational methods that are able to use streaming processors like the PS3's Cell, and before long, ATI graphics cards, Folding@home believes it will be able to take its research to a higher order of magnitude. The Cell Processor is expected to perform calculations for Folding@home on the scale of 100 gigaflops. With 10,000 PS3s churning away, Folding@home expects Petaflop performance (that's a Quadrillion--1,000,000,000,000,000—floating point operations a second). There are currently only 200,000 actively processing Folding@home computers today, which means an influx of millions of PS3s capable of joining the project could massively expand the capabilities of the Folding@home, enough so that project leaders are now considering expanding their simulations to study Alzheimer's and Huntington's Diseases and other forms of cancer.
With the latest system software update expected to become available at the end of March, Folding@home icon will be added to the Network menu of the XMBTM (XrossMediaBar). PS3 users can join the program by simply clicking on the Folding@home icon or optionally set the application to run automatically whenever PS3 is idle.
Starting with Folding@home, SCE will continue to support distributed computing projects in a wide variety of academic fields such as medical and social sciences and environmental studies through the use of PS3 and hopes to contribute to the advancement of science.
To run the application automatically in idle state, PS3 must be connected to the network with both main power switch and power button turned on. Option setting must also be changed as this automatic feature is off at default.
*Sony, the one and only!
*By Dan Nicolae Alexa, 09:02 PM, March 15th 2007
Sony puts PS3’s Cell CPU to work in a joint scientific project with Stanford University, called Folding@home, which is different from the newly announced HOME online entertainment service.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that all PLAYSTATION 3 consoles will have the capability to connect to Stanford University’s Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases.
Currently, the project harnesses the capacity of thousands of PCs to examine how the shape of proteins, critical to most biological functions, affects diseases.
FAH (folding@home) says a network of PS3's will allow performance similar to supercomputers.
Stanford University is thus leveraging PS3’s powerful Cell Broadband EngineTM (Cell/B.E.) – and what will be an even more powerful distributed supercomputing network of PS3 systems – to help study the causes of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.
Because the process of folding proteins is so complex, computers are used to perform simulations to study the process. Since these simulations can take up to 30 years for a single computer to complete, Folding@home enables this task to be shared among thousands of computers connected via the network, utilizing distributed computing technology. Once the data is processed, the information is sent back via the Internet to the central computer. The Cell/B.E. processor inside each PS3 is roughly 10 times faster than a standard mainstream chip inside a personal computer (PC), so researchers are able to perform the simulations much faster, speeding up the research process.
A standard PC working alone would take a day to simulate 1 billionth of a second of protein folding. But scientists believe that 10,000 idle PS3s can be four times faster than IBM's BlueGene/L System, which cranks out 280.6 trillion calculations per second. And if Sony could actually sell the PS3 with as much success as the PS2, imagine what 100 million units could do.
“Millions of users have experienced the power of PS3 entertainment. Now they can utilize that exceptional computing power to help fight diseases,” said Masayuki Chatani, Corporate Executive and CTO Computer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “In order to study protein folding, researchers need more than just one super computer, but the massive processing power of thousands of networked computers. Previously, PCs have been the only option for scientists, but now, they have a new, more powerful tool—PS3.”
“We’re thrilled to have SCE be part of Stanford University’s Folding@home project,” said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. “With PS3 now part of our network, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world’s most life-threatening diseases.”
According to a Stanford University statement: “The PS3 client will also support some advanced visualization features. While the Cell microprocessor does most of the calculation processing of the simulation, the graphic chip of the PLAYSTATION 3 system (the RSX) displays the actual folding process in real-time using new technologies such as HDR and ISO surface rendering. It is possible to navigate the 3D space of the molecule using the interactive controller of the PS3, allowing us to look at the protein from different angles in real-time.”
Thanks to new computational methods that are able to use streaming processors like the PS3's Cell, and before long, ATI graphics cards, Folding@home believes it will be able to take its research to a higher order of magnitude. The Cell Processor is expected to perform calculations for Folding@home on the scale of 100 gigaflops. With 10,000 PS3s churning away, Folding@home expects Petaflop performance (that's a Quadrillion--1,000,000,000,000,000—floating point operations a second). There are currently only 200,000 actively processing Folding@home computers today, which means an influx of millions of PS3s capable of joining the project could massively expand the capabilities of the Folding@home, enough so that project leaders are now considering expanding their simulations to study Alzheimer's and Huntington's Diseases and other forms of cancer.
With the latest system software update expected to become available at the end of March, Folding@home icon will be added to the Network menu of the XMBTM (XrossMediaBar). PS3 users can join the program by simply clicking on the Folding@home icon or optionally set the application to run automatically whenever PS3 is idle.
Starting with Folding@home, SCE will continue to support distributed computing projects in a wide variety of academic fields such as medical and social sciences and environmental studies through the use of PS3 and hopes to contribute to the advancement of science.
To run the application automatically in idle state, PS3 must be connected to the network with both main power switch and power button turned on. Option setting must also be changed as this automatic feature is off at default.
*Sony, the one and only!
