PS3 Cluster @ LACAL

[TheGamerPunk]

Now turn on life@home on all of them :)

[dpjackal89]

@TheGamerPunk I dont think u understand what a cluster is

[mec567]

But can it run Crysis?

[ivelocityi]

will this run BF3?

[Chrisgodoflard]

You can now Quick scope 240 times faster than you normally can do.

[125blahbla]

HEY its your fault for global warming BUD!!!

[anonomous1324]

So, I bet you're ticked at the removal of Other OS, huh.

[TheFaltyLife]

I want to play a game..

[bderousse]

is the power bill ok?

[mr2000jp]

those are the old version of the ps3 , it eats too much power , and it gets the dreaded yellow light of death , the gpu pops up , and it dies , fixing it coast too much ,

[eaglemodz]

but will it blend?

[l67swap1]

It runs folding at home simulations , a project done by stanford university

[cokernator]

at least put something on the description what this PS3 cluster is for instead of just freaking video without anyone talking. pathetic.

[alechalfon]

But will it run Crysis?



[devilzzzzzzzzzz]

@alechalfon It'll run crysis 2 lol! xD

[xXSamster96Xx]

LAdies amd Gentleman: This is a server of Sony!

[thefistheserpent]

But will it blend?

[6253amanda]

@TechnicCreations I can clearly imagine the mountains of Microsoft PC's with RROD....

& a huge cluster of 360's all blinking red in sync....

[ashinms]

What's the point in using a ps3 in a cluster? What makes them better suited than a regular pc with the same FLOPS?

[NewLynxS]

@ashinms The price. Cell is a processor specialized in floating-point operations, which means it achieves a higher FLOPS performance in exchange for low performance on other areas. 240 PS3s achieve up to 43008 GFLOPS in a cluster for just $72000, which is a great price/performance ratio compared to desktop CPUs (considering FLOPS performance only!).

Similarly, GPUs are even more specialized. To achieve the same peak FLOPS performance as 240 PS3s you just need 17 AMD FirePro V8800 cards ($19720).

[ashinms]

@NewLynxS I see. It would be interesting to see "hybrid" systems with the PS3 as the "floating point unit" and other, more conventional computers being used as "integer" units.

[NewLynxS]

@ashinms The IBM Roadrunner, for instance. It uses both Opteron and PowerXCell 8i processors.

[st3reo23]

Call of Duty cluster :)

[xxfm12xx]

No Xbox cluster! LOL

[tangletailpro]

Microsoft has obviously failed if the PS3's become new super computers

[TechnicCreations]

@tangletailpro

You don't know what your talking about. Do you?

[EyesOnMeStudios]

@tangletailpro no as microsoft is a software company Selling Windows Operating Systems....PS3 is just the hardware which you can run Windows on (if you want)

[qmriis]

@EyesOnMeStudios What? Windows doesn't run on PS3.

[EyesOnMeStudios]

@qmriis It can, just like you were able to run Linux on them (until Sony screwed that over) To run Windows would just take alot of determination and a good understanding of the Cell CPU

[qmriis]

@EyesOnMeStudios You don't know what you're talking about. Windows is only available on PC / x86 architecture. The PS3 uses a PowerPC CPU.

[EyesOnMeStudios]

@qmriis Its an Sony/Toshiba/IBM designed cell microprocessor that has a 3.2Ghz PowerPC based (aka a PPE and not actually a PowerPC unit) that then controls 8 SPE units within the core, 1 of which is disabled due to stability issues!

To load Windows you need to use a Grub Bootloader to disable the the SPE's till there is only one active!

Also windows is not only based upon the 86x archticeture asit can be run on a variety of different archetitectures, 86x is just the most stable

[NewLynxS]

@EyesOnMeStudios First, Windows supports x86 processors ONLY. There is no support for PowerPC, ARM, SPARC, and any other instruction set architecture besides x86.

Also, the eight SPEs are not "within" Cell's core, they are separate structures connected by the EIB. Also, the eighth SPE is disabled only on the PS3 (the IBM QS20 series have Cell processors with all eight SPEs enabled), and it's for increasing manufacturing yields through chip harvesting, not for "stability issues".

[EyesOnMeStudios]

@NewLynxS *sigh* emulation of a x86/64 core... god

i know the 8th SPE is disabled ONLY on the PS3 due to STABILTY because it can not run at the set clock speed without generating to much heat. So they went with less to gain more overall 'option'. They would of used all 8 SPE's if the clock of the chip was at 2.8 Ghz

Its easier to lock a core than redesign a whole core to run all 8 SPE's at 3.2Ghz (as as you should know the Cell core is designed to run at 2.8Ghz)

[NewLynxS]

@EyesOnMeStudios Nonsense. Cell has been an energy efficient chip since launch, even with 90 nm transistors. And disabling a small structure like a SPE, which takes up about 1/20th of the Cell die, would provide minimal improvement on power consumption and heat generation. The eighth SPE is disabled to increase manufacturing yields, so that if a Cell processor comes out with a defective SPE, they disable that one and can still use the chip, rather than discarding it and losing the money.

[NewLynxS]

@EyesOnMeStudios Continued...

Also, that 2.8 GHz thing is just bullshit. Before the launch of the Cell processor, IBM documentation specfied Cell's performance as 32 GFLOPS per PPE/SPE, which means Cell could run at up to 4 GHz (it can run even higher now, after two die shrinks). Needless to say, Cell has no problem whatsoever running at 3.2 GHz with all units enabled.

And finally, emulation does not equal support. You can emulate a x86 ISA, but there is a huge loss of performance.

[EyesOnMeStudios]

@NewLynxS Now it can run at 4Ghz or greater, because as you said its gone from 65nm to what ever it is at now. Plus the original spec is 12.8 GFLOPS, it supported 32GB of RAM, not 32 GFLOPS of processing power!

And where in any of my posts do I say anything about a performance lose of running windows on a PS3, I just said it could be done not that it would run superfast

[NewLynxS]

@EyesOnMeStudios A peak of 12.8 GFLOPS means Cell running at 1.6 GHz, which is just ridiculous. Besides, IBM announced the 4 GHz, 32 GFLOPS (per unit) specs on a PDF publication from September 2005. I'll send you the link soon.

And the point is that Windows doesn't support anything but x86. The possibility of emulation does not equal support, given the large ammount of disadvantages it brings. The biggest one being that Windows HAS to be run inside another OS, and not on its own, for it to work.

[scarredone0107]

i bet that room is hot as hell

[TheCaptainWaffles]

There is no way a PS3 processor can acheive 179.2 Gflops, my server 12 core cpu can just barely touch 85 Gflops. Unless the PS3 processor is super threaded which I doubt.

[NewLynxS]

@TheCaptainWaffles First, 179.2 GFLOPS is the PS3's theoretical peak. It doesn't actually achieve that value. On Folding@home, for instance, the PS3 averages just 28 GLOPS. Also, Cell has processing units specialized on floating-point operations, meaning they will achieve higher FLOPS performance than a general-purpose CPU in exchange for low performance on other areas. Just like GPUs, which today can easily break the TeraFLOPS barrier.

[spartianbrandon]

@nos676 i know, i was just being stupid :P

[spartianbrandon]

wonder how these guys feel about the playstation network getting hacked

[nos676]

@spartianbrandon they dont use any PSN's most likely, just using the PS3's processing power

[Moldysquirral]

@spartianbrandon wouldn't affect them in the slightest bit, due sony being a giant dick, they got rid of the OtherOS feature that made this awesomeness possible, then hackers stepped in to bring the awesomeness back but sony sued their asses so other hackers stepped in a fucked sony real bad. The main point is no, they wouldnt need this all and still want to play call of duty or go on the PSN store.

[FireBender808]

So what

[uglybuddy6]

i wonder how many have YOLD

[acollsen]

Imagine a XBOX cluster like this. Would be nice with all the red blinking leds. Put on some music and dance to it. =)

[jonwilly2]

@acollsen they would all over heat and be a mass of red rings lol idk from gaming on both the ps3 feels like it performs better then the xbox still would be cool though

[Alisterhenry]

I'm sure at least 1/2 of these PS3 are broken by now, YLOD most likely.

[itouchhacker241]

are these running Linux????

[magorem]

(JOKE)

Mr, President, i think i know how we can create a super computer with little money,

(bush):How,?

Scientist: Putting 1700 ps3 together, it could be the fastest computer in the US!!

(bush) Really?, ok lets do this!

(chinese CEO) Sr, the american govrmnt wants to buy 1700 ps3 systems, what do we do?

Sr:AAAahhh, why dont they make their own?

(chinese CEO): well, they have money, not brains.........

Sr: do they know this is a simple videogame???

(chinese CEO):eehh, maybe, but works for them..

[pootwoot]

Imagine playing Call of duty on that!

[eliopoulos97]

thats a completaly INSANE amount of power

[basic204]

How did you do this ?

[thecrazyhenchman]

@basic204 buy a bunch of ps3 and stick them on shelves.

[720moorhsum]

hey kamisan44,

how many FLOPS can this thing reach

- moorhsum

[NewLynxChannel]

@720moorhsum Since a single PS3 can achieve up to 179.2 GFLOPS in this situation (1 PPE and 6 available SPEs, 25.6 GFLOPS from each), a cluster with 240 PS3s has a peak performance of about 43 TFLOPS.

[cunijoeme]

@NewLynxChannel omfg (want)

[jonwilly2]

@NewLynxChannel thats not bad at all still a little over 500 TFLOPS of the Tianhe-1 super computer

[NewLynxChannel]

@jonwilly2 Dude, 43 is lower than 500. Besides, Tianhe-1A has a peak performance of 4701 TFLOPS, not 500.

[jonwilly2]

@NewLynxChannel i didnt say 1A just 1 and let me refrase that a little over 500 TFLOPS less then the Tianhe-1 not 1A at 2.566 PFLOPS 

[NewLynxChannel]

@jonwilly2 Again, 43 TFLOPS is not higher than 500 TFLOPS. And when comparing that to Tianhe-1A you use the peak performance (4701 TFLOPS), not the maximum achieved performance (2566 TFLOPS), since 43 TFLOPS is also the PS3 cluster's peak performance (on a real-world scenario it would achieve less than that, just like Tianhe-1A)..

[jonwilly2]

@NewLynxChannel 500+ > 43 or 43 < 500+......... and the Tianhe 1 or 1a i dont really care about them i was just making a comparison and a little more then 500 is 500+ as in more then 500...............

[NewLynxChannel]

@jonwilly2 Now I see what you meant. You know, punctuation exists for a reason...

[XareSoft]

@NewLynxChannel like in Terminator

[billdsafdsad]

@NewLynxChannel so is that a lot?

[NewLynxS]

@billdsafdsad Depends on what you're comparing it to. It makes an outstanding workstation (system with four AMD FirePro V8800 = 10.56 TFLOPS), but is still very far from supercomputers (IBM Roadrunner = 1375.78 TFLOPS).

[billdsafdsad]

@NewLynxS ok

[JBqwertyDAWG]

can i have one

[mr2000jp]

@JBqwertyDAWG this is the old version , it will get the yellow light of death

[collumjiggas]

Very awesome!

Is this an MPI application? Have you used it for hash precomputation? How is performance? How about enegy consumption.

[foofighter1337]

Oh come on man, you can't post this without some stats! What's the processing speed on this bad boy?!

[pyrodude314]

lol 240 wish i could buy 240 ps3's

[N2B814]

Where you given a discount on your purchase... o_0

[araujovirtual]

Todos esses ps3 pro cara rodar o Windows 3.11

[sami0015ROCKS]

just crack open a windows it will cool down

[adamh3212]

@sami0015ROCKS or just get Aircon ...

[MagRAGE]

Really impressive! brute force cracking says "hi" xD

[curtisstyle]

holy crap sweet setup

[marty552]

I also got a 240 ps3 cluster but not in a sepparate chamber,, in my bedroom XD

[thejordan01]

you must have a killer air con setup, that cluster is drawing what, 17,500w of power :O

[logistix111]

Nothing special needed. They put out less heat than a server.

[FunkyLaiho]

OUAA ! Ça sort d'où tout ca ?

[mollyrulz9999]

OMG 240 PS3's is the technical equivalent of 30 supercomputers (a ps3's making 1 supercomputer)! Have them all using their power for, say, an operating system like Linux working on one screen and you'd have the BEST computer on the planet. You could probably run a game like Crysis with 200 times the amount of polygons, and that's just being safe!

[logistix111]

Crysis isn't cluster aware. Sadly, a lot of cool programs aren't yet. Let alone 64bit aware.

[mollyrulz9999]

I know. it's only an idea.

[wild2892]

Overkill much!

what would you use all that for???

[kamisan44]

Cryptographic applications

[logistix111]

Explain what program you are using that is cluster aware. Open Mosix? Distributed John The Ripper?

[iminyourbasement]

@kamisan44 can you play a video game on that or is that function disabled?

[903harman]

@wild2892 neuromorphic computing,surveillance,researc­h,....

[agares65]

Very Nice

[darkskyy42087]

OMFG what a Cluster.