Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster [Archive]

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xone_4

03-09-2007, 10:02 PM

Afrikan

03-09-2007, 10:41 PM

Using eight Sony Playstation 3 units, Dr. Frank Mueller built a supercomputing cluster capable of high-performance computing and running the latest in computer gaming.

where is the one who was happy about having 3 PS3s ? :)

http://www.physorg.com/news92674403.html

psh......get back to me when this SO Called "Doctor" has a cake to go along with these eight PS3s.....

:norris: thread failed/

jk..lol....

edit:

just read the article, pretty interesting......it looks like someone would need 10,000 PS3 to crack the top 500 fastest CPUs in the world....... but I regress as I see no mention of cake anywhere in the article....... Skinny Nerdy guys still pwns all.....

xone_4

03-09-2007, 11:19 PM

will any way i think i may have my personal cluster in the future :P

xone_4

03-09-2007, 11:21 PM

full article

Using eight Sony Playstation 3 units, Dr. Frank Mueller built a supercomputing cluster capable of high-performance computing and running the latest in computer gaming.

Mueller, an associate professor of computer science, has built a supercomputing cluster capable of both high-performance computing and running the latest in computer gaming. His cluster of eight PS3 machines – the first such academic cluster in the world – packs the power of a small supercomputer, but at a total cost of about $5,000, it costs less than some desktop computers that have only a fraction of the computing power.

“Clusters are not new to the computing world,” Mueller says. “Google, the stock market, automotive design companies and scientists use clusters, but this is the first academic computing cluster built from Playstation 3s.

“Scientific computing is just number crunching, which the PS3s are very good at given the Cell processor and deploying them in a cluster,” Mueller says. “Right now one limitation is the 512 megabyte RAM memory constraint, but it might be possible to retrofit more RAM. We just haven’t cracked the case and explored that option yet.” Another problem lies in limited speed for double-precision calculations required by scientific applications, but announcements for the next-generation Cell processor address this issue.

“In the computing world there is a list of the top 500 fastest computers,” Mueller says. Currently the fastest is BlueGene/L, a supercomputer with more than 130,000 processors at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The PS3 cluster at NC State does not break into the top 500, but Mueller estimates that with approximately 10,000 PS3 machines anyone could create the fastest computer in the world – albeit with limited single-precision capabilities and networking constraints.

The PS3 allows the Linux operating system to be installed, and IBM designed the programming environment for programming the Cell processor (including eight vectorization units), which combined tremendous computing power within a single PS3. According to Mueller, each PS3 unit contains six operational special-purpose cores for number crunching and one general-purpose core that is two-way multithreaded in his configuration, so the eight machines clustered have 64 logical processors, providing plenty of number-crunching ability in addition to running the latest games.

“Jan. 3 is the ‘birthdate’ of this cluster,” Mueller says. “Of course, here at NC State we will use it for educational purposes and for research. We are working with scientists to determine the needs and how our cluster can be used to their benefit, and our computer science faculty is already using the cluster to teach classes in operating systems, with parallel systems, compilers and gaming likely to follow.”

http://www.physorg.com/news92674403.html

acousticvan

03-10-2007, 12:15 AM

So the joke goes:

"Because I have 8 PS3s"

Garfunkel

03-10-2007, 03:21 AM

curryking1

03-10-2007, 03:40 AM

^Just stack 'em in your backyard! ;)

Garfunkel

03-10-2007, 04:09 AM

the leaning tower of ps3's.

liver_kick

03-10-2007, 04:11 AM

but having 10,000 to have the best computer in the world is a bit of a tall order, that would take up quite a lot of space. You would need an aircraft hanger or something lol.

IBM already has it in the works actually. 16,000 Cells and 12,000 square feet to be exact. And our tax dollars. ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5322704.stm
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dongarra/cell2006/cell-slides/04-Ken-Koch.pdf

curryking1

03-10-2007, 04:33 AM

IBM already has it in the works actually. 16,000 Cells and 12,000 square feet to be exact. And our tax dollars. ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5322704.stm
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dongarra/cell2006/cell-slides/04-Ken-Koch.pdf

Dude that's hype! They are still putting so much work into this Cell processing. It's really saying something how these three companies were able to get the heads up on the multi-core and multiple thread processing. The definitely did a great job in making an effort and succeeding by being almost like pioneers with the tech and getting so many processors on one chip, and available so fast!

Garfunkel

03-10-2007, 04:46 AM

i like the idea of roadrunner and all but it's funny that IBM want to top their own record, wait for the Japanese to catch up dammit!

curryking1

03-10-2007, 04:50 AM

How many Cell articles have used this picture btw.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42059000/jpg/_42059040_42016826_cell203.jpg
It HAS to be in the range of 100 or so percent lol!

LaLiLuLeLo

03-10-2007, 05:39 AM

he could give one to me, he doesn't seem to be needing them...

but having 10,000 to have the best computer in the world is a bit of a tall order, that would take up quite a lot of space. You would need an aircraft hanger or something lol.

you would shut down your the city with that amount of power consumption. And the block would catch on fire.

You'd need a huge facility to store them in, keep them adequately spaced and ventilated and a quater-million dollars in cooling equipment to keep the place at room temperature or lower. (like a news room).

...
...
:help:

It'd be worth it to see any kind of team or institution adequately utilize 80,000 SPUs.

curryking1

03-10-2007, 06:13 AM

Just glue them together! :)

jaxmkii

03-10-2007, 06:17 AM

he could give one to me, he doesn't seem to be needing them...

but having 10,000 to have the best computer in the world is a bit of a tall order, that would take up quite a lot of space. You would need an aircraft hanger or something lol. dude are you kidding there piled up all over the street! i have to kickem out of the way to close my car door.

Garfunkel

03-10-2007, 06:33 AM

well, everyone send me their credit card details and we will start building the worlds most powerful supercomputer at my house.

LiquidEagle

03-10-2007, 07:45 AM

where is the one who was happy about having 3 PS3s ? :)

:lol: I gave the other two to friends at 1/2-price to pay off my pre-ordered one, but it's not too late to do a recall... :-D :-p

Garfunkel

03-10-2007, 12:37 PM

could've given me one. I'm your friend...

:cry2:

xone_4

03-10-2007, 02:59 PM

ok just hear these,
a company i do some work with is waiting for the march release to order 100 PS3 to use it as a render farm as it is more coste effective than baying 100 PCs.

and to see how powerful it is as a rendering farm, see my other thread
the frame render on a dual core pc on 68 min, on the cell less than a sec. :)

http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=70196

Garfunkel

03-11-2007, 09:16 AM

would you work for pixar by any chance?

03-11-2007, 11:47 AM

i like the idea of roadrunner and all but it's funny that IBM want to top their own record, wait for the Japanese to catch up dammit!
it's called a double punch. in a race, if you 'wait', you lose. ;)

Garfunkel

03-11-2007, 12:56 PM

LOL, i guess it's like the turtle vs the hair.

jaxmkii

03-11-2007, 06:06 PM