U.S. Air Force Finishes PS3 Supercomputer of Epic Proportions

[Eldritch Warlord]

Didn't they start this project a whole year ago? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.160040-Air-Force-Orders-2-200-PlayStation-3s] Seems like they should have been able to put this together a little faster.

AMERICA FUCK YEA!

Uhh.. 'Japan, fuck yeah' I think you meant to say..after all they designed and made the consoles.. America (Microsoft) should be pretty pissed that their own military won't use their hardware.

It would be a bit harder to use Xbox 360s as they aren't capable of using any standard operating systems right out of the box. Of course, new PS3's aren't either (good move Sony, removing useful functionality from your system, I'm sure all your customers really appreciated that).

Furthermore, I don't see Japan making any cost effective, energy efficient, gaming console supercomputers. Do you?

 

[L3G0kees]

You can't really sell supercomputers not a big market.
I love the system however, maybe somethimes some PS3 temporarly disappear, and reappear with some strange save files.
You guys forget that the other OS function was removed because it was used in the hack. Currently you can only use the hacks to play downloaded games.

 

[Sephiwind]

On one hand it's cool to see video games systems used this way but on the other hand it's kind of douchey. The only reason it's "cheap" is because Sony can't charge what the system is actually costs to make.

 

[Fumbleumble]

Didn't they start this project a whole year ago? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.160040-Air-Force-Orders-2-200-PlayStation-3s] Seems like they should have been able to put this together a little faster.

AMERICA FUCK YEA!

Uhh.. 'Japan, fuck yeah' I think you meant to say..after all they designed and made the consoles.. America (Microsoft) should be pretty pissed that their own military won't use their hardware.

It would be a bit harder to use Xbox 360s as they aren't capable of using any standard operating systems right out of the box. Of course, new PS3's aren't either (good move Sony, removing useful functionality from your system, I'm sure all your customers really appreciated that).

Furthermore, I don't see Japan making any cost effective, energy efficient, gaming console supercomputers. Do you?

Ithink xbox's aren't used because the hardware is pretty crap and it wouldn't be possible rather than a software issue.. I'm sure if the military were willing to use MS stuff then MS would be more than willing to write some software for it.. but they lose out on thatalso, to Linux.

And no, they don't make the supercomputers, they just design and build the hardware that enables others.

 

[Fumbleumble]

Nope. The US offered but Bill Gates refused on 'ethical' (see:money) reasons.

Source please.

 

[cWg | Konka]

lol if this was made with 360's it would be hotter then the sun, good call going with ps3's

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Should have used PS2s.

Fear the combined power of 2,000 emotion engines!

 

[minimacker]

Aha, so the army finally accumilated enough money to buy one?

 

[Danpascooch]

Rome NY? I live RIGHT NEAR THERE!

 

[Atmos Duality]

The US Military (the AIR FORCE no less?!) being FRUGAL?!

No wonder Sony is pissed; those are 1700 PS3s that aren't going to turn game sales for them, and they were all sold at a loss.

I'm guessing the Air Force won/settled their suit with Sony for the False Advertising from months back?

 

[Fearzone]

The U.S. military has never been known for smart spending, and this is just beyond cool.

 

[irani_che]

no linux fuck that, bastard Sony
but it is impressive that they are using PS3s as processors


FUN FACT
the N64 is about 2000 times faster than the computers they used to send astronaughts to the moon

 

[mjc0961]

Yeah, that's impressive until you remember Sony gave them the middle finger by removing Linux support. Then all it takes is a few YLODs and the whole thing is busted, or crippled at least.

 

[mdkcde]

I for one welcome our new sentient videogame overlords.

 

[DarkSpectre]

This will actually be used for protecting us from aliens. Well not really, but one of its primary missions is to scan space images and process the data within, so if there are alien's out there this will pick them up. Also will reduce the time it takes to the process all the thousands of square feet of satellite images of the earth massively. It should help to reduce the money spent on image processing.

 

[Kenster362]

20 years from now we will look back on this picture and laugh at the pathetic power from a room full of processors.

 

[manaman]

Didn't they start this project a whole year ago? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.160040-Air-Force-Orders-2-200-PlayStation-3s] Seems like they should have been able to put this together a little faster.

AMERICA FUCK YEA!

Uhh.. 'Japan, fuck yeah' I think you meant to say..after all they designed and made the consoles.. America (Microsoft) should be pretty pissed that their own military won't use their hardware.

It would be a bit harder to use Xbox 360s as they aren't capable of using any standard operating systems right out of the box. Of course, new PS3's aren't either (good move Sony, removing useful functionality from your system, I'm sure all your customers really appreciated that).

Furthermore, I don't see Japan making any cost effective, energy efficient, gaming console supercomputers. Do you?

Ithink xbox's aren't used because the hardware is pretty crap and it wouldn't be possible rather than a software issue.. I'm sure if the military were willing to use MS stuff then MS would be more than willing to write some software for it.. but they lose out on thatalso, to Linux.

And no, they don't make the supercomputers, they just design and build the hardware that enables others.

It's actually IBM that has the vast majority of the market cornered on large computing platforms. They have some 90% of the market share.

Aha, so the army finally accumilated enough money to buy one?

It says Air Force right up there in the title buddy. How in the world did you forget about that by the time you got three words into your post?

 

[Grimplewurst]

So wouldn't this count as modding 2000 PS3 consoles? Will this mean that the supreme court may actually take them to task about... oh wait...

F******g boys club.

 

[10zack986]

Jesus. When I signed up for the Air Force, I had to go to MEPS processing, so they sent us to a hotel for the night, so we could be tested the next day. The hotel had a special area for the soon-to-be processed that had like, 5 ps3s. I though THIS was a waste of PS3s.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I don't mean to tell sony how to run their business, but maybe they should start constructing these type of computers specifically for the military. Apparently there is a market for it.

Uh, yes, there is. But if you look up the old articles about this story you'll note that the purpose-built systems that use the same processor design. (IBM's cell processor), cost 10 times as much per device as a PS3.

That's the whole reason the airforce did this with PS3's to begin with. If they hadn't, this system would have cost them 20 million or more, rather than 2 million.