Folding@Home entered the spotlight a few months back and the project that was founded by Stanford University in October 2000 is a way for common people to help scientists find cures for some of the most horrid diseases known to mankind. The new-found interest was spawned by Stanford through a special Folding@Home client for ATI’s Radeon graphics circuits, which are capable of many times the performance of the best performing processors of today. Since then NVIDIA has shown interest in the Folding@Home project and we have known for long that Sony will create its own client for its video game console PlayStation 3.
It seems that Folding@Home will appear soon for Sony’s console and thanks to the advanced Cell processor, PS3 is claimed to offer ten times the folding@home performance of a regular PC.
Except from a massive calculation power, Sony and Folding@Home has made sure that console owners get some eyecandy to set their sights on. While the processor is calculating protein folding the graphics circuit, NVIDIA RSX, will render a visual presentation of the work. A function which is only available with the PS3 version of the software. The software will be made available as an update at the end of March. More information about Folding@Home with PS3 can be found at Stanford’s website or Sony’s own folding section.
