| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

More Sites You Might Like

US Air Force to purchase 300 Playstation 3s

by Scott Jon Siegel on Mar 6th 2008 8:20AM

The United States Air Force has an application in to the Federal Business Opportunities group to purchase 300 40GB Sony Playstation 3s. No, they're not belated holiday gifts for the troops; the consoles will be used to test the robust Cell processor and its military applications.

According to the document, the PS3 features the only Cell processor on the market to meet the standards required by the testing, and does so at reasonable cost. The Air Force Research Laboratory will be using the machines to conduct the tests, in what appears to be a growing trend these days. Or, you know, it's all a big scam so that they can get their Metal Gear Solid 4 fix.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Source

Tags: air-force, cell, military, PS3, us-air-force

Reader Comments (63)

Can you imagine the difficulty in putting 300 CELL chips on a single motherboard let alone the HEAT that would be created if they did that? Buying the PS3's and networking them together is by FAR the cheapest solution.

@jrhawk42 I'd assume they want a working entity when they arrive. Not just the chips which then they would have to put into the computer. The PS3 seems as if (I guess) the cheapest way to do so.

@Crono So true!

They're not the first ones do create a server farm using PS3's for high performance computing applications:

http://www.ps3grid.net/
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-PS3

oh, and there's even a gaming related use:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/ps3%20farm/

They must be trying to enter the 4th dimension.

The war has simply crossed over into the 4th dimension, and we need to understand the enemy. Also, you stole my 4th dimension joke thunder.

Nah, they just needed something powerful enough to power the Stargate.

If it were 300 Wiis, it'd be different, because they'd have such a hard time finding them in the first place.

Apparently the PS3 can do everything for us from simulating black holes to military use... I wonder if this is what Sony had in mind when they first created it?

Global Domination.

lol the club on my air force base just got a shit load of ps3 boxes :D

Voting it as scam. WTF would they do this instead of asking IBM (and getting updated processors in the process), AND possibly getting it free since it's a potential future major sale?

lol this is nothing compared to how much money Microsoft has received from the Air Force. think of how many PC's are being used...way over 300... maybe 3000 per base!

is this how Sony is gonna have a breakthrough year by selling consoles to military and science labs which is prob a very lucrative market to pursue lol

So is this better or worse than the golden toilet?

Previous 50 Comments

Breaking News

US Air Force to purchase 300 Playstation 3s

Reader Comments (63)

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 12:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 12:24PM Deck said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 1:37PM makattack said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 12:29PM Bentzero said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 1:39PM HighFiveJesus said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 2:53PM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 2:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 2:54PM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 4:11PM grumpyzrp said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 4:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 4:18PM grumpyzrp said

Posted: Mar 10th 2008 1:02AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 11th 2008 2:40PM hvnlysoldr said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW