One million PS3s in distributed computing network

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 06 February 2008 00:05

Your IT - Entertainment

More than one million PlayStation 3 owners have registered as participants in the Folding@home project. This milestone was achieved in eleven months.

The involvement of PlayStation owners is especially valuable to the project, because a PS3 can do the type of calculations required around ten times faster than a standard PC.

"Since partnering with SCEI, we have seen our research capabilities increase by leaps and bounds through the continued participation of Folding@home users," said Vijay Pande, associate professor of chemistry at Stanford University and the Folding@home project lead.

"Now we have over one million PS3 users registered for Folding@home, allowing us to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world’s most life-threatening diseases. We are grateful for the extraordinary worldwide participation by PS3 and PC users around the globe."

The project explores the way proteins fold or misfold, a process believed to be related to various diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many forms of cancer.

The Folding@home software was first included in the PS3 system software in March 2007. According to Sony officials, "Currently PS3 users make up approximately 74 percent of the total teraflop computing power of the Folding@home project." Folding@home project statistics show that as at February 5 they were carrying out approximately two-thirds of the work.