When US Air Force researchers last year created the mother-of-all-processors using Sony PlayStation-3 game consoles, it seemed like a stroke of cost-saving genius.
To deliver a 53-TerraFLOP processing cluster, the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., hoovered up 1,700 PlayStation-3 game consoles, then harnessed the power of their combined processors to evaluate new breakthroughs in technology for synthetic aperture radar, high definition video and something called "neuromorphic computing".
At the time, the researchers noted that two PlayStation-3 consoles provide 150 GigaFLOPs of processing power for $600, but a single 3.2GHz cell processor delivers 200 GFLOPs for $8,000. Why spend the extra cash when PlayStations come so cheap? (Besides, each of the 1,700 Sony processors comes with a controller and accessory package -- did someone say, 'EBay'?)
But Sony just ruined everything.
It turns out the AFRL's PlayStation-powered processing cluster is based on the Linux operating system. Well, Sony just released a new PS-3 update that removes the ability of the device to support other operating systems.
Gaming blog ARS Technica notes the AFRL's existing processing cluster still works, but the Linux-based devices can no longer be repaired or serviced if they break.
Says ARS Technica: "Such are the dangers of relying on consumer-grade hardware sold with a very different set of concerns from those that bedevil the scientists, especially in an era where firmware updates routinely alter functionality."
To deliver a 53-TerraFLOP processing cluster, the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., hoovered up 1,700 PlayStation-3 game consoles, then harnessed the power of their combined processors to evaluate new breakthroughs in technology for synthetic aperture radar, high definition video and something called "neuromorphic computing".
At the time, the researchers noted that two PlayStation-3 consoles provide 150 GigaFLOPs of processing power for $600, but a single 3.2GHz cell processor delivers 200 GFLOPs for $8,000. Why spend the extra cash when PlayStations come so cheap? (Besides, each of the 1,700 Sony processors comes with a controller and accessory package -- did someone say, 'EBay'?)
But Sony just ruined everything.
It turns out the AFRL's PlayStation-powered processing cluster is based on the Linux operating system. Well, Sony just released a new PS-3 update that removes the ability of the device to support other operating systems.
Gaming blog ARS Technica notes the AFRL's existing processing cluster still works, but the Linux-based devices can no longer be repaired or serviced if they break.
Says ARS Technica: "Such are the dangers of relying on consumer-grade hardware sold with a very different set of concerns from those that bedevil the scientists, especially in an era where firmware updates routinely alter functionality."
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