This Stack Of PS3s Is The 33rd Biggest Computer On the earth [Military]

Remember how america Air Force bought a ton of PlayStation 3 consoles then strung them together ? Ever wonder just why the military would do something like that? Well, it’s not for taking part in Killzone on.

Indeed, you couldn’t play it – or any other disc-based PS3 game – in case you tried, as every PS3 you spot pictured above has had its Blu-ray drive functionality removed.

In all, 1760 consoles had been joined with ” 168 separate graphical processing units and 84 coordinating servers” to form what the Air Force is looking ” the fastest interactive computer within the entire Defense Department” . It’s also, the military claims, the 33rd largest computer of any kind on earth.

This ” rat king” of PlayStation 3s can be used for things like research into AI, fast processing of satellite pictures and the enhancement of radar.

Interestingly, despite only in the near past logging on with this monstrosity, the Air Force Research Lab’s Mark Barnell recognises that the Cell technology powering the PS3 isn’t any longer the bees knees, and says ” we’re eager for working with the following generation of architecture” .

Which is formal talk for ” we’re eager for going out and buying 2000 PlayStation 4s in a number of years time” .

Defense Department discusses new Sony PlayStation supercomputer [Cleveland.com, via Gamasutra ]

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This post is tagged: cell technology, graphical processing units, interactive computer, largest computer, satellite pictures, sony playstation