PS3 network enters record books

Scythe · 2 Nov 2007 at 15:58

A project that harnesses the spare processing power of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) to help understand the cause of diseases has entered the record books.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7074547.stm

FAH isn't just a PS3 network, so why is the BBC branding it as a PS3 network. Yeah, it uses PS3's but PC's have been contributing to FAH for a long time!!

Nismo · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:00

BBC misreporting F.T.W \o/

Scythe · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:01

Nismo said:
BBC misreporting F.T.W \o/

Yep, seems a lot like this recently :mad:

KNiVES · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:11

Yeah, typical beeb.

mmj_uk · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:15

Scythe said:
FAH isn't just a PS3 network, so why is the BBC branding it as a PS3 network. Yeah, it uses PS3's but PC's have been contributing to FAH for a long time!!

Because without PS3's running F@H it wouldn't be remotely close to entering the record books.

Quote from April said:
More than 250,000 PS3 owners have enrolled their console in the Folding@Home project which uses it to study the shapes proteins assume.

So many have signed up that the project has carried out a year's worth of research in a month.

Quote from November said:
FAH has signed up nearly 700,000 PS3s to examine how the shape of proteins affect diseases such as Alzheimer's.

So in November the Playstation network is computating aboout 2.5-3 years of research each month.

Hence the final quote/paragraph in the article:

"It is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds," said Prof Pande.

msmalls74 · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:17

Think its more to do with the help of the PS3 F@H reached the 1 Petaflop mark a few weeks ago. Without the PS3 it would not have met this mark Standford said that PS3's amount to 17% of the users and contributes over 76% of the WU done. Isnt the BBC just reporting a fact that many people wouldnt know about? It mentions that it was only a PC thing (incoorect i know)up until march this year and with it now being run on PS3's aswell they managed to break the 1 petaflop mark and enter the record books as the most powerful distributed computing project ever, so how is this misreporting the facts?

OS Type Current TFLOPS* Active CPUs Total CPUs
PC 171 179518 1833331
Mac OS X/PowerPC 7 9220 107360
Mac OS X/Intel 14 4364 27220
Linux 38 22504 251863
GPU 38 645 4492
PS3 898 36206 304870
Total 1166 252457 2529136

Only thing BBC got wrong was the amount of PC (windows) users is far higher than 200K near 2 million, but active users are about 200k for PC and with 36k active PS3's.

Columbo · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:17

This must frustrate the thousands of folks that actually use their PC's resources 7 days a week and don't get a mention on the beeb.

A few poxy playstations run it and its news worthy...tut tut BBC :mad:

barnettgs · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:20

ManCuBuS said:
This must frustrate the thousands of folks that actually use their PC's resources 7 days a week and don't get a mention on the beeb.

A few poxy playstations run it and its news worthy...tut tut BBC

Maybe Sony is paying BBC?

Pug · 2 Nov 2007 at 16:59

msmalls74 said:
Standford said that PS3's amount to 17% of the users and contributes over 76% of the WU done.

if thats true i'm really impressed with the PS3s folding ability...

Abooie · 2 Nov 2007 at 17:02

I personally think the bbc is so stuck up it's own sony fanboy ass as far as the tech gaming reporting is done that I don't bother with the site any more (thinking the Parmount hd-dvd deal report and the halo 3 coverage).

But credit where credit is due and in this case the PS3 is doing a lot of good work and is worthy of a kudos mention.

Mr Men · 2 Nov 2007 at 17:07

Well done Sony

Is it not worrying that the PS3 is doing more FOH than gaming though?

msmalls74 · 2 Nov 2007 at 17:08

Pug said:
if thats true i'm really impressed with the PS3s folding ability...

Posted the numbers already, from the f@h site.
Tflops CPUS active
PC 171 179518
PS3 898 36206
Total 1166 252457
Not showing all the other CPUs, but number of active PS3's is approx 15% the total amount of active CPU's running F@H and contributes 77% of the output.

rp2000 · 2 Nov 2007 at 18:05

Not only did PS3 help F@H break the petaflop barrier (Sep 19th)and enter the guiness book of records, but the following week:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/09/25/foldinghome-petaflop-barrier-crossed-update/

The total amount of power the PS3 inputted to the project was in excess of a petaflop (without PC and other client types).

I feel bad, as I have never actually contributed a WU yet, even though the PS3 sits idle a lot of the time, I have never run F@H more than a couple of hours in a 2 day period. (I think the server only waits 2 days or something for a WU).

Anyone know how many hours for a WU on a ps3?

rp2000

divine` · 2 Nov 2007 at 18:14

rp2000 said:
Not only did PS3 help F@H break the petaflop barrier (Sep 19th)and enter the guiness book of records, but the following week:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/09/25/foldinghome-petaflop-barrier-crossed-update/

The total amount of power the PS3 inputted to the project was in excess of a petaflop (without PC and other client types).

I feel bad, as I have never actually contributed a WU yet, even though the PS3 sits idle a lot of the time, I have never run F@H more than a couple of hours in a 2 day period. (I think the server only waits 2 days or something for a WU).

Anyone know how many hours for a WU on a ps3?

rp2000

A WU will take around 8 hours from start to finish. Not 100% sure but I believe the deadline from download is about 24 hours. Maybe 48.