Kids aiming to persuade their parents to buy the PlayStation 3 have some new ammunition -- donating their PS3's down time to researchers could help cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or mad cow disease.
This November, Sony's PS3, with a price tag from $499 to $599, will challenge Microsoft's XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii in a battle royale for holiday dollars when it hits stores in the United States and Japan.
The PS3's chip is the same one IBM is using in a supercomputer it's building for the Department of Energy. That computer is expected to reach speeds of one petaflop, or 1,000 trillion calculations per second.
"It has so much horsepower and, of course, when you're playing a game all that horsepower will be used for the game. But there are a lot of times during the day when somebody's not playing the game," said Sony's Richard Marks. "It seemed like a good idea to be able to use that horsepower for something else that is, in this case, good for mankind."
Sony worked with Stanford University's Folding@home project to harness the PS3's technology to help study how proteins are formed in the human body and how they sometimes form incorrectly.
Improperly formed proteins are linked to a number of diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gherig's disease, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad-cow disease.
Read the whole article @CNN
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PS3 Downtime To Fight Disease through Folding
Started by
Nvyseal
, Sep 18 2006 07:36 PM
3 replies to this topic
#1
Nvyseal
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Posted 18 September 2006 - 07:36 PM
#2
Sphere
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Interests:I'm a Dutchy, that means I'm not a German (which doesn't sound/look the same to me!) also, being a Dutchy means I'm an idiot... sort off!
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Posted 18 September 2006 - 08:34 PM
Love the idea, but... I don't know about leaving a console on whole day so it can work, while it also eats energy that way....
It's a bit strange to me, but I like the idea.
p.s.
I now have my own, my server, my laptop and my homemate's pc working for us
It's a bit strange to me, but I like the idea.
p.s.
I now have my own, my server, my laptop and my homemate's pc working for us
#3
chriso_86
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Posted 18 September 2006 - 09:15 PM
Yeah, I saw this about a month back!! Pretty awesome!! I guess it is a PC and I leave it on 24/7 so really you shouldn't worry so much about leaving a console on I guess. Besides I think anyone who has one of these diseases could care less about a little higher electricity bill.
Thanks sphere!! You are the man.
Thanks sphere!! You are the man.
#4
jhp_2003
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Posted 19 September 2006 - 01:56 PM
wow. I wouldn't have thought of that. Though, I'm more of the kind of person who will shutdown the console when I'm done w/ it. So for people like me, it won't work well as a folding@home machine, but it's a good idea for people who will leave it on all the time.
I'd really like to buy a PS3, but that's one heck of a price tag. I think I'll have to wait a while before I can afford one.
I'd really like to buy a PS3, but that's one heck of a price tag. I think I'll have to wait a while before I can afford one.
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