Video Game Technology and...Science?

[thethingthatlurks]

A professor at my university has given me a copy of this article
[link]http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/88/8844sci1.html[/link]
For those who do not want to click random links: the use of GPUs provides significant improvements in the area of computational chemistry over traditional CPU based computations. This enabled scientists to use desktops to perform calculations that would ordinarily require a supercomputer. So for discussion value, what other video game tech can you think of that serves other, more productive purposes?
Lastly, if you think PC gaming is dying, think of us science folk.

 

[Irridium]

Well, there was that news story of the US Air Force making a supercomputer out of PS3's. So yeah.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105767-U-S-Air-Force-Finishes-PS3-Supercomputer-of-Epic-Proportions

 

[zfactor]

SETI lets you use a screensaver that networks your PC to their supercomputers, effectivly turning the public's computing power and theirs into a massive hypercomputer.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

SETI lets you use a screensaver that networks your PC to their supercomputers, effectivly turning the public's computing power and theirs into a massive hypercomputer.

Yep, although it's not just SETI (though they did it first as far as I know). There are a ton of @home applications to which you can contribute. My old laptop used to run SETI@home, Einstein@home, and a monte carlo @home application whose name I forgot. It's actually a really cool thing, and I would encourage everybody to participate. Just download this thing here, and select one or two (or how ever many cores your processor has) applications:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/