PS3 Is Curing Alzheimers

by Gregory Sullivan — Friday, March 23, 2007, 04:01 PM EDT

After the rollout frenzy just before Christmas, the Sony Playstation 3 game console has sort of lost its buzz. But it is doing something that the other consoles aren't. As you may know, Stanford University researchers have ingeniously decided to use the latent computing power of a network of web connected desktops and now game consoles, to process vast amounts of data for Alzheimer's research as well as other diseases. A new Folding At Home client for the Playstation 3 has enabled these users to do the majority of heavy lifting for the project already: 338 out of 549 teraflops!

The project just needs about 18,000 more PS3s participating to make the Folding at Home project the first distributed computing project to hit a Petaflop. To put that into perspective, the Japanese MDGRAPE-3, RIKEN's supercomputer, has about a Petaflop of computing power. And the potential goes on from there. There are 2 million PS3s in the wild, and over 100 million PS2s shipped thus far. PS3 owners, what are you waiting for? Get the word out to other PS3 owners. Let's help cure Alzheimer's disease.

Smart people doing worthwhile things. And of course you can join the HH Folding Team and do your own part with your PC as well. Details here.

Tags: S3, PS3, Mer, IM

PS3 Is Curing Alzheimers

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