The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

[ENTERPRISE]

Dozens of PlayStation 3s sit in a refrigerated shipping container on the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s campus, sucking up energy and investigating astrophysics. It’s a popular stop for tours trying to sell the school to prospective first-year students and their parents, and it’s one of the few living legacies of a weird science chapter in PlayStation’s history.

 

Those squat boxes, hulking on entertainment systems or dust-covered in the back of a closet, were once coveted by researchers who used the consoles to build supercomputers. With the racks of machines, the scientists were suddenly capable of contemplating the physics of black holes, processing drone footage, or winning cryptography contests. It only lasted a few years before tech moved on, becoming smaller and more efficient. But for that short moment, some of the most powerful computers in the world could be hacked together with code, wire, and gaming consoles.

 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/3/20984028/playstation-supercomputer-ps3-umass-dartmouth-astrophysics-25th-anniversary

 

I still remember the good old days when I first got a PS3 and the Folding@Home client became available for it, man anyone rocking a PS3 at that time would be racking those points up. It was no wonder at the time people had farms of those things crunching away.

[schuck6566]

Even the Ps2 was on the watch list..... "Though assembled in Japan, the PS2’s powerful processor chip was manufactured in the United States, making it controlled technology prohibited from ending up in the hands of nationals from export-restricted countries"

[ENTERPRISE]

Even the Ps2 was on the watch list..... "Though assembled in Japan, the PS2’s powerful processor chip was manufactured in the United States, making it controlled technology prohibited from ending up in the hands of nationals from export-restricted countries"

 

At least it is not China that has all but banned foreign hardware and software...D'oh