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Distributed Computing on Next Gen Consoles
anonymous lion writes "Wired has a story on the need for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to support distributed computing with a non-gaming purpose. The article goes on to discuss SETI@home, distributed.net, and Folding@Home." From the article: "The next generation of console gaming is going to see a huge increase in machine performance and overall computing power. Already planned for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are multiple 3.2-GHz PowerPC processors capable of handling advanced gaming and graphics simulations, along with out-of-the-box internet capabilities such as Xbox Live Silver. With all that horsepower in a machine that is used for only a fraction of a day, we should offer gamers a chance to put these unused resources to good use."
### The reason you shouldn't switch off your computer is to keep the electronics at a relatively constant temperature.
I seriously doubt that this is an issue. I have yet to actually see a single computer that breaks for this reason. Fans, harddisk and the like all break years before your electronics go by by. And a fan constantly rotating 24/7 for sure gets more used then one that only rotates for 40h a week.
### It doesn't have anything to do with constant access
Its *all* about constant access. If computers would be available seconds after you touched the power button, like C64 used to be, people wouldn't bother to let their computer running, noise, heat, powerconsumtion all are very good reason to switch the PC of as soon as you can, but with those long boot times we have these days its just to annoying to wait a minute or longer just to have a quick look at a webpage.
Well, it may not be much of an issue now, but this is quickly changing.
Both Microsoft and Sony are playing with the idea that these game consoles will do more than merely play games. If it also has DVR functionality, advanced DVD capabilities, etc., then the day will soon arrive where people DO leave them on 24x7.
I have a TiVo, which is just a special-purpose computer. I wouldn't mind at all if it had a "power down" mode that would run a grid application such as trying to help cure cancer while it's not recording anything and I'm not watching anything.
And for what it's worth, both my Xbox and PS2 stay on 24x7. When I'm done playing a game, I usually just switch the input on the tv, not actually turn the console off. Am I alone in this?
If Martz wants to use the video game consoles and electricity of people to do his calculations, let him give the people something they want in return, like free games.
That would probably be enough to motivate a lot more people to turn their machines over to SETI.
The idea that people are going to let their machine run their crunching away, for free, for no benefit, is pretty stupid. The first distributed computing project to offer any sort of tschocke is likely to become more help.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
(1) All of the distributed applications that you mention release the results of their research as public scientific publications. Any companies can use the results, but so can anyone else. Subscription to the journals is all that costs money, but generally free "e-prints" are available. All of the distributed applications that you mention are non-profit.
(2) Even if they were patenting the results (which they aren't -- see 1) it is better to have the patented result that one has to pay for than to have nothing. If I have breast cancer, I would rather pay $1000 for a test than be unable to get a test because no company wanted to invest in it.
As a side rant (somewhat related to (2)), you say patents are inhibiting progress. But without the financial incentive that the breast cancer patent generated, the medicine would never have been developed. I'm sorry that so many people only work out of greed, but that's reality at the moment. And it actually works pretty well.
1. I bought my first Mac in February. Now it seems PPCs are not in the Mac future.
2. I run ClimatePrediction.net on my Mac and Linux x86 systems. The program is huge, comes from a mainframe environment, and is married to an INTEL compiler. The PPC version is, needless to say, not very fast. Single work units can take months to complete.
The other projects in the article would be on my plate, too, if they compared with my concern for climate change.
Something I've thought about a few times, but done no research on whatsoever, is the possibility of distributed computing on mobile phones. They are getting more and more powerful, more and more ubiquitous, and they are connected to a network. And they're kept on all day with their processors idle for the most part. We could use this computing horsepower for somthing that will benefit all of society, such as processing marketing data.