PlayStation 3 will offer massive calculation power through its Cell processor and Sony has for long been boasting the amount of data this processor will be able to process with the right applications. Now it has announced a new project that will display what the video game console’s powerful processor is capable of: Folding@Home, which is a project where users all over the world lend their computers’ calculation power to help in the fight against cancer and parkinson, to mention a few. The Stanford university has together with Sony now presented Cure@PS3, which is simply Folding@Home optimized for PlayStation 3.
“Now in 2006, we are looking forward to another major advance in capabilities. This advance utilizes the new Cell processor in Sony’s PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) to achieve performance previously only possible on supercomputers.”
According to Stanford that powers the Folding@Home project a PlayStation 3 console would offer a performance of up to 100 gigaflop which is several times faster than today’s fastest PC processors. It’s not only the performance that is impressive with PS3 but that it has also developed advanced features for Cure@PS3 where it uses the console’s graphics processor to display the folding process in real-time with HDR effects and similar.
“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.”
Sony seems to be serious when it says that PS3 will be capable of more than just games, and we are looking forward to hearing more about Cure@PS3 and other similar projects.
