PS3 Owners To Simulate Gene Folding

fistfullast33l writes "According to IGN UK, the next version of Playstation firmware will include a joint venture from Stanford University and Sony called Folding@Home. Similar to the infamous SETI@Home project, Folding@Home will be an idle application that participates in a simulation that 'aims to map the way that genes change shape (or fold), so they can be studied by scientists and, potentially, cure illnesses such as Parkinson's or a variety of cancers.' The application will download a 'work unit' that it will unravel to completion, update Stanford's servers, and then download the next unit and continue." We've previously discussed the client; it will be available as an update at the end of the month, and should appear on your cross-media bar once installed.

Comments

Who?

[patternmatch]

So who's Gene Folding?

Make money this way?

[UbuntuDupe]

I was thinking recently: if I could get the credit card cycle beginning right, I could defer payment on any electricity I buy for 110 days. (55 days from first day of electricity billing cycle to due date, 55 days from beginning of credit card to its due date.) If I use it steadily for the whole month, that's on average 95 days still, or about a quarter (of a year).

So, if there were a way to convert electricity into roughly its monetary value, I could put it in a money market account for (on average) 95 days, and then keep the interest that accrued. (5% per year at today's money market rates)

So, anyone know if you can charge enough for PS3 computing cycles for this to be worth it?

Unleash the power...

[AmIAnAi]

Maybe this is the application Sony is looking for to utilise the full power of the PS3.

Re:Infamous?

[0racle]

It's not just famous, its INfamous.

Might even be the biggest thing to come out of Mexico.

Re:Genes don't fold.....

[Yvan256]

Paper folds too, you know. Unless it gets beaten by scissors.

Games?

[Rydia]

Maybe they can use this massive amount of distributed processing power to come up with a game worth playing.

Really, really. It's the games. Home might be nifty (although also microtransactiony) and this might be a good idea, but neither of these are going to move systems. I get the feeling Sony's treading water, hoping for something to pop up.

Re:Genes don't fold.....

[Palshife]

Hmm, Rock will find this information useful. Yessss, very useful indeed... Your covering days are over, Paper!