Folding@home saves the world (via PlayStation 3) March 23rd

by Christopher Grant { Mar 15th 2007 at 12:26PM }

Coupled with some glowing press about the admittedly impressive specs of the PlayStation 3's Cell processor comes news that the console's long promised Folding@home client will be using all those leftover processing cycles on March 23rd. The distributed computing project, whose PS3 partnership was detailed in an event at Stanford University this morning, will be accessible within the Network menu of the XrossMediaBar.

Why bother donating all that computing power (not to mention electricity) to "help study the causes of diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and many cancers?" If you're not in it for the altruism (and we're talking serious good karma here), then at least you'll be able to enjoy watching the protein folding happen in real-time, and manipulate the presentation using the Sixaxis. Somewhere, a slightly disgruntled Will Wright is wondering when Sony's going to donate all that unused processing power to a SETI@home client.

Gallery: Folding@Home (PlayStation 3)

Tags: PS3, Stanford

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 12:33PM

I don't think it will help. This is stupid. I'm pretty sure that the ones doing the research have plenty of processing power.

Andy D. @ Mar 15th 2007 12:34PM

I think the world with glowing PS3s screensaver option is great.

Andy @ Mar 15th 2007 12:36PM

@Jack

They said that 10,000 PS3s, less than 1 percent of whats been sold in NA will double the amount of volunteer processing power they currently have. So in a few years, when we get millions sold, it will most definitely make a huge difference.

JodyAnthony @ Mar 15th 2007 12:39PM

wouldn't you have to leave it on at all times?

Aaron @ Mar 15th 2007 12:44PM

Finally! Something I can use my PS3 for! (zing!)

But seriously folks, this is good news. As long as it doesn't burn out my PS3, I'll leave it on 24/7.

Vidikron @ Mar 15th 2007 12:46PM

@4

Not really... though you could if you want. There are actually groups involved in these distributed computing projects that compete with one another and they will level multiple PCs on 24hrs a day just to pump up their groups numbers. But for most PS3 users I'm guessing this will run in the background when they are at the dashboard, using the web browser, visiting the PS Store, listening to music, etc... The visual display is likely something you can bring up if you are curious, but the actual computing will always be going on in the background.

Personally, I plan to take part in this.

Vidikron @ Mar 15th 2007 12:47PM

Gah!! I mean "they will leave", not "they will level"... lol.

JodyAnthony @ Mar 15th 2007 12:52PM

@#6: cool. I will be taking part in this when I get a PS3 later on. I was wondering if it would work in the background or what. Pretty nifty. I run it on my PC at home, but my PC is on 24/7 anyway. f@h is a good program. I started using it as soon as I realized 'hey, SETI@home probably isn't going to help humankind in any way any time soon'

Marty @ Mar 15th 2007 12:54PM

Didn't they make an announcement about this like, oh, a year ago?

Intentless @ Mar 15th 2007 12:55PM

yes they did marty but this is more of a "hope you didn't forget about this its actually coming soon."

^FourthDimensionGod^ @ Mar 15th 2007 1:10PM

man what to do?

Leave my Playstation running so i can help cure some diseases

or Turn my Playstation off when its not in use so it doesnt use excess energy and can help fight global warming.

Do i sacrifice the people affected by the disease or do i sacrifice everyone?

Vince UK @ Mar 15th 2007 1:10PM

Well it's more of a "this is the date it launches".

Diman @ Mar 15th 2007 1:21PM

Lol people try to put a negative spin even on this, hilarious.

TheScantronman @ Mar 15th 2007 1:24PM

So could this make the PS3 a tax write-off?

jsn @ Mar 15th 2007 1:25PM

considering the lack of compelling games, PS3's should have plenty of unused cpu cycles to throw around... and for a good cause too!

^FourthDimensionGod^ @ Mar 15th 2007 1:31PM

just let the diseases be. Since putting people to sleep is illegal diseases and viruses are the best form of population control.

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 1:31PM

Way of topic here! Has anybody ever noticed that all gamestop employees think they know everything about gaming?

Jake @ Mar 15th 2007 1:33PM

But what if I hate advances to medicine. Is there one where I can dedicate my PS3 power towards pure evil? That might be fun.

JodyAnthony @ Mar 15th 2007 1:36PM

I have noticed that Jack. There are 3 gamestops and 2 eb games in my area, only one of the gamestops seems to have people that know what the hell they are talking about working there. I can't go buy a gamecube game at any of the other ones without the cashier making some smartass remark about how nintendo is for kids.

oki @ Mar 15th 2007 1:40PM

yeah for more heat in my room, i love using alot of electricity since my parents are paying for it ha

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 1:44PM

The one over where I live is all about Sony. I tried to have a conversation about how Sony selling bad and that its not looking good for Sony and he wouldn't talk.

Pzoned @ Mar 15th 2007 1:59PM

@11

Many people I know already have their 300watt PCs running 24/7 doing nothing but collecting IMs or downloading porn. This is at least better than that.

Energy consumption does not cause global warming, unclean methods of generating energy helps cause global warming.

Jake @ Mar 15th 2007 1:59PM

@21
Jack,
It is the opposite at my local Gamestop. I overheard one of their employees basically persuade somebody to buy a 360 instead of PS3 basically saying it was so much better than he didn't play his PS3 at all. This was recent, just before Motorstorm came out. All the guys there seem pretty pro-360.

Jake @ Mar 15th 2007 2:02PM

Pzoned,
Most electical energy on earth is generated by unclean methods. So, when you leave your PS3 on 24/7, you are basically burning our grandchildren to death. Unless you are Al Gore, then you can just invest money in your alternative energy company and use all the power you want while still saving the world from global warming, aka. man bear pig.

Markusdragon @ Mar 15th 2007 2:05PM

Folding@home?

That's what Sony will be doing if they can't generate enough sales soon! Zing!

...Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun. I'm a terrible, terrible person D:

Joe @ Mar 15th 2007 2:07PM

Awesome! Cure diseases, surf the web, run linux, play movies and soon you can play sims with friends and decorate your own house! Who needs video games when you can do all this other dumb shit?

sheppy @ Mar 15th 2007 2:28PM

@Jack.

Well, that's your problem, right there. You see, when a console sells 50,000 a week in February for the US, it's hardly a failing console. That's like saying, "man, those Madden games are selling horribly" when you don't own a single copy. ;p

Yeah, my local Gamestop is horrible. You have two people there who basically know about gaming. The rest are tragically pathetic fanboys, and lazy too. Let's just put it this way, this was my experience when picking up my copy of VF5.

Three employees. One was a friend of mine, and he was the one working a register. Two registers are "open" although that's highly subjective. You see, one register was being used by a rather fat, dumpy looking tool, in the middle of a transation. Turns out, the people he was helping wanted an Xbox 360 core and forgot to pick out a game or two. Rather than come back to them later, he just sat in idle while the couple argued between "wrastlin" and "racin." Meanwhile, the line was getting 10 people deep on the other register. Rather than halting or cancelling that transaction to help other, instead dumpylad decides to debate the current PSM cover story of Saints Row coming to PS3 with the other idle worker with the flock of seagulls haircut. Now, keep in mind, I live in champaign, where Saints Row was developed. I know several people in Volition so I know the problems they had the entire time. Despite this, Seagulls keep making bashes on the PS3 saying shit like "Yeah, if bigger and better, they mean crappy framerate and longer loadtimes (it should be noted, Saint's Row is a streaming game)." He then went on to inform his idle dumpy lad about the problems Volition is having with the port and inconsistant framerate. Now, it should be noted that the framerate on 360 was constantly laggy and unplayable until the final two months of development on Xbox 360. Why, then, should PS3 somehow be able to achieve a drastically steady framerate (hint: even the 360 version is still inconsistant but much, much better than it was) long before the same kind of time table to a port with little in the way of adjustments to the specific console (at the time)? I asked him this and naturally, Seasgulls retreated to Activision and EA ports, completely forgetting about each companies past including EAs amazing inability to even bother to test Madden on PSP, resulting in a console crashing glitch in the franchise mode. So when I finally got up to my friend, I picked up my copy of VF5. Eyes lit up as they thought they had me cornered. "No wonder you defend PS3, you actually bought one," Seagulls mused.

"Actually, fucko, I own all three. And if you retards would do some work, I wouldn't have had to listen to ten straight minutes of your moronic driveling while waiting to pick up a game." My friend laughed to himself as I turned towards him, "Man, it sure is busy when you're working alone."

Between the constant sales pitches (would you like to preorder Halo 3, gaurantee you copy, it's not like Microsoft is gonna ship 5 million copies of the fucker day 1), Edge cards, telemarketing calls (Were you aware that we take trade-ins towards your preorders?), and ignorant sales people, I'm wondering why I keep going...

Oh yeah, because other stores are actually WORSE!

ZaZeeMan @ Mar 15th 2007 2:31PM

It can do this but no background downloading???

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 2:36PM

This was before Motorstorm and VF5. When this happened all the PS3 had was RFoM.

Digi Smalls @ Mar 15th 2007 2:37PM

well good, this kind of stuff is exactly what the Cell is really made for. sadly, they put it in whats supposed to be a game machine.

.

Mixmaster @ Mar 15th 2007 2:55PM

To #27... these are just games, you need to take some ritalin and calm down.

sheppy @ Mar 15th 2007 3:02PM

"To #27... these are just games, you need to take some ritalin and calm down."

Actually, I was more annoyed at the fact that I jumped in and the store was taking sooooo long to get to me. And seeing two people stand around while my friend is trying to handle this rush was the issue I had more offense to.

Virtua Fanboy @ Mar 15th 2007 3:15PM

Hey sheppy:

You know who's fault it is that your local Gamestop (if you were telling the truth) is all jacked up right?

YOU.

Did you try to get a managers number w/some names to complain? Probably not. You probably gave them your (parents) money.

If mommy bought all three systems for ya she probably bought you a car too. Go to Wal-Mart or somewhere else that deserves your (parents) money.

AssemblyLineHuman @ Mar 15th 2007 3:27PM

@Jake: Or if you're Sean Hannity. Then, you can just deny global warming exists.

Matt B @ Mar 15th 2007 3:32PM

I hear ya sheppy.
If I were management at these game stores. I would squash this immediately. Let the customer buy what they want, not what that person thinks they should have.

Digi Smalls @ Mar 15th 2007 3:38PM

sometimes customers ask.

and who hasn't been thankful of a considerate sales person giving a knowing opinion before an expensive purchase some time? think what you will of gamestop/eb employees, but you know what? they play a LOT of videogames.

.

Digi Smalls @ Mar 15th 2007 3:46PM

obviously the guys in sheppy's case were the furthest thing from considerate, but they would probably know more than the vast majority of their customers. not everyone who goes in there is a blog reader.

.

ChewyDogg @ Mar 15th 2007 3:56PM

LOL @ Stanford University. They just got stomped by U of L. GO CARDS!!

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 4:06PM

Go OSU & Kansas

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 4:11PM

LOL! Joystiq deleted my post on how I was rooting for OSU & Kansas. I guess I know what teams you guys don't like lol.

Jack of No Trades @ Mar 15th 2007 4:12PM

WTF! Joystiq's system is effed up.

John @ Mar 15th 2007 4:25PM

2 questions: Why isn't this being implemented on the xbox360?
And, can you change your folding@home team and member number, or do you automatically belong to the PS3 team?

a dirty bastard @ Mar 15th 2007 4:31PM

@ 24

if u live in ny you would kno that al gore pay 50 000 dollars a month in electricity bills 4 his ny mansion

ill trooper @ Mar 15th 2007 5:09PM

They should make it so every time you play fLOw you're actually performing microsurgery on someone somewhere in the world.

Extinction @ Mar 15th 2007 5:36PM

"It can do this but no background downloading???"

That's coming in the same fw update

BenW @ Mar 15th 2007 5:53PM

Why is this a PS3 exclusive? Have the consoles compete on something like this. However, the leading console may get grief for having too much idle time.

Digi Smalls @ Mar 15th 2007 6:03PM

al gore lives in aurora hills, arlington VA. nice house, but definitely not a mansion.

.

Rubang B @ Mar 15th 2007 7:54PM

I went to a FuncoLand (before it became the hell that is GameStop) back in the day, and watched a parent ask the manager "Which Pokemon game is first, Red or Blue?" The manager, after pausing for a couple seconds to think of a lie, said "The Red one's first." Then when it became GameStop, the place got even worse.

And on topic, I think this is an awesome idea. Put that processing power to some good use. That reminds me, I need to use some of my PC's power for that SETI@home thing. Gotta find me some aliens.