PS3s used to simulate black hole collisions

95 Comments by Scott Jon Siegel Mar 5th 2008 9:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Sony PlayStation 3

It's like our favorite old-school commercial: "Mr. Owl, how many Playstation 3s does it take to simulate a collision between two black holes?" Apparently, the answer is 16.

A group at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth hopes to use a cluster of 16 PS3s to run the simulation, specifically looking at the properties of the gravity waves emitted by the collision. The cluster -- nicknamed the PS3 Gravity Grid -- was built with a partial donation from Sony, who must like watching really big stuff collide as much as we do.

Similar simulations have been run before (most notably by NASA), but this marks the first time the super-calculation has been performed using a game console. Like our colleagues as PS3 Fanboy, we admit that most of the technical jargon presented here is way over our heads. We're sure some of you will "get it," though, and not just resort to Tootsie Roll references.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Tags: black-holes, education, research, sony, space

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Jtenma: Mar 5th 2008; 9:07AM

In b4:

-folding @ home, black hole simulation joke COMBO!
-"at least PS3 is good for something!" joke

...sigh*

DemonGSides: Mar 5th 2008; 9:52AM

This is not 4chan.

We excised this blight before, we are not afraid to do it again.

No more in b4.

Marry me Mario: Mar 5th 2008; 10:57AM

"Overall, a single PS3 performs better than the highest-end desktops available and compares to as many as 25 nodes of an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. And there is still tremendous scope left for extracting more performance through further optimization. More on that soon."

That statement says it all.

Jtenma: Mar 5th 2008; 12:01PM

@demongsides

OH YEAH...U MWANNA MAKE SOMETHING OF IT...

STEP OUTSIDE!!!!

Dan: Mar 5th 2008; 7:10PM

I thought the existence of black holes hadn't been proved yet.

xFenixKnightx: Mar 5th 2008; 9:08AM

THIS, is why PS3 is still relevant =P

Jtenma: Mar 5th 2008; 9:13AM

In b4: v0.0.2

-folding @ home, black hole simulation joke COMBO!
-"at least PS3 is good for something!" joke
-or (by fenixknight)"THIS, is why PS3 is still relevant =P"
-"this is living" parod-THIS IS DIVIDING BY ZERO!"

xFenixKnightx: Mar 5th 2008; 9:24AM

Jtenma = teh failz lol

You cant say in b4 if you werent, in b4.

Off topic I found a new PS3 Model yesterday at Bestbuy that I had never seen b4. Sweet! Ck It!!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8403514&st=bluray+player&type=product&id=1180743330749

StrangeBum: Mar 5th 2008; 9:39AM

@Fenix

New PS3 SKU confirmed! Video footage of it showing up in BestBuys system. 120gb hdd, back compat, media reader and dualshock 3

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Jerk Face: Mar 5th 2008; 9:44AM

@ StrangeBum

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

xFenixKnightx: Mar 5th 2008; 10:21AM

I love that video, never get tired of getting people with it [+] 1 heart =P

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): Mar 5th 2008; 10:23AM

dammit. how the hell do i always get Rick Roll'd? its not even funny anymore for crying out loud!

Jtenma: Mar 5th 2008; 11:59AM

In 4fter: v0.0.9 (c what i did thar)

-folding @ home, black hole simulation, joke COMBO!
-"at least PS3 is good for something!" joke
-or (by fenixknight)"THIS, is why PS3 is still relevant =P"
-"this is living" parody-"THIS IS DIVIDING BY ZERO!"
- fixed glitches that allowed idiots to try to be smart...they stay stupid.
-fixed some grammatical bugs.

I'm going way to far with this!!!

LOL, don't mind me.

Deck: Mar 5th 2008; 12:30PM

@StrangeBum Damnit! RickRoll'd again!

Nate: Mar 5th 2008; 9:11AM

No matter what anyone else says, that's DAMN COOL!

Maverick Saturn: Mar 5th 2008; 9:12AM

This is good, depite the terrible sarcasm, they once again find more ways to utilise its technology. I think more of this should be used for other various technologies.

JayVe: Mar 5th 2008; 1:36PM

I would be very excited if a game used this technology. I could even see a physics-based black-hole manipulation game. But until this is something game-related, it is useless to me.

You may as well tell me that there is a PS3 on the moon, and one at the depths of the sea, cause that information would have just as little bearing on how the PS3 is doing as a GAMES machine.

I'm a gamer. Give me games.

Maverick Saturn: Mar 5th 2008; 3:21PM

True, but sometimes, things have relations to other things that are even more important then measly games

ugg.tryptophan: Mar 6th 2008; 6:33PM

this is the "play"station right? (emphasis on play, as in having fun playing games)

Boostjunkie: Mar 5th 2008; 9:15AM

Wow, if you read the article the PS3 seems sweet for doing this type of work. Now if they could use all this power to match me up with similar skilled players in Warhawk I would be happy.

kbomb1upc: Mar 5th 2008; 9:17AM

Maybe the PS3 can simulate good games...amiright... just kidding...I love my PS3

No but on the real, that’s pretty cool. I don't think Sony would have thought the PS3 would have contributed so much to the science and health community. Where else can you save the world from aliens, create black holes and then cure cancer on the same machine, only the PS3. Cool.

Arno: Mar 5th 2008; 9:18AM

But can it play games yet?

Maverick Saturn: Mar 5th 2008; 9:22AM

Its been doing so for a while now, just depends on how many games you buy and how many you NEED to play at any given time.

Even with the amount of games out, I have a selected few for my PS3, 360 and WIi, all adding up to around the same amount on each, the rest of the games on each console either don't interest me, or have little contribution to my current library.

Maverick Saturn: Mar 5th 2008; 9:24AM

Don't be fooled, just because I had the cash to buy both a 360 and PS3 (Wii being my auties) doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to buy all games in existance if I don't want or need them, I just switch to another consoles games when I bored with the other.

Nate: Mar 5th 2008; 9:33AM

If you don't know, you haven't been paying attention. Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box, Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry 4, Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, Motorstorm, Resistance, Folklore. Not to mention some 40+ PSN games including full titles like Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection and Warkhawk, and high quality games like Super Stardust HD, PAIN, High Velocity Bowling, and Pixeljunk Monsters.

Intentless: Mar 5th 2008; 9:56AM

Arno I believe the question should have been does it let you play any games that are worth playing that are exclusice to the console. Anything unique not destined to be multiplatform at some time in the future...

Maverick Saturn: Mar 5th 2008; 10:54AM

Well then its half of what Nate mentioned, plus the others in future.

Doom3killer: Mar 5th 2008; 9:28AM

this is actually cool

:)

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School): Mar 5th 2008; 9:31AM

What I want to know is, how they get their custom software to run on said PS3's. Linux is locked out the GPU and all of the SPE's.

So sony's either providing software keys for research purposes, or they've cracked it.

Most likely the former, but it shouldn't take long for that to leak to the interwebs, if thats the case.

Me: Mar 5th 2008; 10:59AM

If a way to use all the SPE's and GPU in Linux were to come about, I may just have a justifiable reason to get one right then and there.

It would kick ass to load it up with MythTV or some other type of linux media center and finally watch some HD encodes I have.

XBMC just isn't cutting it in that department.

Curmeo: Mar 5th 2008; 11:31AM

all the SPEs are accessible through Linux, only the GPU is locked out. i doubt Sony provides anything for any of these non-gaming related uses of the PS3. they're all stock unaltered PS3s running on Linux with programmers writing code/programs to use the SPEs for their objectives. IBM is the one who actually provides guidelines and tips for parallel programming, for free i believe on their cell website.

Curmeo: Mar 5th 2008; 11:51AM

Intentless: Mar 5th 2008; 9:34AM

What I find absolutley fascinating about these kinds of studies is they are going to simulate what happens when two of these things they truly don't even understand collide... I can see if they actually knew what black holes were to begin with then yeah we can see what they do... They assume that a black hole is this or does that but now one actually knows... And it just... It just... At least the PS3 is good for something... I guess...

Marry me Mario: Mar 5th 2008; 10:28AM

For the most part they do know what a black hole is...a collapsed star that has such intense gravity that it warps space/time itself and theoretically inside it contains a singularity.
Fascinating stuff this is.

Intentless: Mar 5th 2008; 10:44AM

Points being theoreticaly and how can we currently measure if it is truly warping time?

evilmatt: Mar 20th 2008; 12:59PM

I think thats why the zoom way out for the money shot.

Lone Starr: Mar 5th 2008; 9:35AM

Fun fact: It would require more than 16 PS3s to simulate two PS3s colliding.

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring): Mar 5th 2008; 10:10AM

But how many would it take to study the red ring nebula?

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring): Mar 5th 2008; 10:16AM

While this is good press for Sony, you have to wonder at the long term benefits. There is a reason they're going for the PS3, rather than say a Cell blade: Subsidies.

The fanboy site also has a report of the Air Force getting 300 of those puppies for some Cell action. They might be breaking even now, but I doubt they want to be a charity for Cell on the cheap forever.

Or hell, maybe they do. What's several hundred lost to research vs. the benefits of having your product responsible for pushing the boundaries of science? Eat it Jack Thompson!

Matt B: Mar 5th 2008; 1:02PM

NPD +300

Curmeo: Mar 6th 2008; 5:33AM

well like you said, the 40GB PS3 doesnt sell at a loss anymore for Sony, and ofcourse everyone who wants to use Cell for non-gaming purposes will go for the cheapest SKU. Kaz Hirai said PS3 might become profitable this year if not next. so pretty soon, the 40GB PS3 will start making a profit for Sony, so it all works out for Sony at the end.

Marry me Mario: Mar 5th 2008; 10:25AM

What an awesome spectacle of incredible power the collision of 2 black holes would be. It's funny, don't these people along with the USAF and many other research applications know like the posters on Joystiq do that the PS3 is NOT more powerful than the 360? Either they are wrong or the anti-Sony Joystiqers are wrong...hmmmm who to believe

Ordeith: Mar 5th 2008; 12:56PM

You certainly wouldn't believe the people peing paid by sony to use subsidized hardware and issue press releases in a desperate attempt to cast a positive light on the PS3 architecture?

Even in real world prices, 16 PS3s come in at nearly $6400. I could give you 24 high speed Xeon cores with 50GB of RAM for that.

Now that performance shootout would be interesting.

Nate: Mar 5th 2008; 2:51PM

Ordeth, it would still be no contest. The SPEs on the PS3 are specifically tailored for intense floating point calculations. The link even says each PS3 is better than the fastest PCs out there. That's why PS3s are dominating folding@home. The Xenon CPUs are general purpose processors made to be flexible enough to do anything. The SPEs are special purpose computational powerhouses. There's just no comparison.

Ordeith: Mar 5th 2008; 6:21PM

Nate..wrong.

(had to google and read through this): http://www.ps3grid.net/pub/cell_for_md.pdf

The Cell, under optimized conditions, can pull 30 gflops. The 3ghz Xeon can pull 20.25 gflops per core (with os overhead).

16 cells = 480gflops
24 Xeon cores = 486gflops

and that price gets you real general purpose cores that can do more than just SIMD style instructions - and 50GB of RAM.

Sorry, it's just a sony PR stunt.