250,000 PS3s Folding@Home

GamesIndustry.biz reports that over 250,000 users have signed up for the Folding@Home project on the PlayStation 3. The sheer number of users has resulted in '700 teraflops in a single moment', most of which is provided by PS3 users. "'The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward,' said Vijay Pande, associate professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead. 'Thanks to PS3, we have performed simulations in the first few weeks that would normally take us more than a year to calculate. We are now gearing up for new simulations that will continue our current studies of Alzheimer's and other diseases.'" The article notes the software has a new update with some refined functionality and faster processing.

Comments

Why bother linking to the article?

[HockeyPuck]

The only information NOT in the summary is this tiny paragraph:

The project is also making a new software update available. The 1.1 version improves visibility of donor locations on the globe, folding calculation speed and protein viewing. There's also additional language support, help screen hints, and improved donor-name length and character handling.

Users can join the program by clicking on the Folding@home icon in the PS3 CrossMediaBar (XMB), or setting the application to run whenever the console is idle.

Why not just put the entire article in the summary?

Re:A small disparity

[Anonymous Coward]

The "Total CPUs" for the PS3 lists only those machines which have returned a work unit within the last five days.

Re:Requested feature

[MarkGriz]

I know some (myself included) are wary of just running it 24/7.

Considering the fact that running it 24/7 uses 144 kWh per month (200 W x 24 hrs x 30 day) I'd be pretty wary myself.
Even at a generous 10 cents/kWh (the US national avg), that's almost $15/month.
If you are unfortunate enough to live where electricity is much higher than that, you are closer to $25

Re:This is not "free"

[DrEldarion]

The PS3 barely puts out any heat when folding. I was surprised when I checked it in the morning and it was completely cool and not blowing out much heat. For perspective, when playing a game, the hot air coming out feels like my car's exhaust. The actual system stays pretty cool, though, which is a tribute to their cooling methods.

Re:This is not "free"

[ivan256]

It shouldn't be too surprising that the GPU would be the most energy hungry component... That's how it is in PCs too.

Re:Better idea for PS3 idle time...

[StikyPad]

Curing cancer is so last century, this century it's all about carbon emissions.

And with any luck, we can do as well at cutting CO2 emissions as we did at curing cancer!

Re:A small disparity

[Lars T.]

The 250.000 comes from "over 250,000 users have signed up for the Folding@Home project". So about 150.000 haven't finnished their first work unit yet. That means they didn't have it running for approximately 8 hours to complete a WU (within the 2 days deadline) yet.