Networked Computing comes to the PS3

Posted on | March 16, 2007 | 1 Comment

Scientists at Stanford University are hoping that video game fans will soon donate their PlayStation 3s to the good cause of finding a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Screenshot from Stanford’s Folding@home program. (Courtesy Sony Computer Entertainment America)

With the next software update for the game console, PS3 owners will be given an option to click an icon for Stanford’s “Folding@home” project and download software that the university has designed to help outsource the computing power of the game consoles (which are essentially computers) needed for some of its research.

The software will run “protein folding” simulations, which help researchers understand why proteins sometimes fold incorrectly and mutate into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Each participating PS3 will periodically download and analyze a chunk of the school’s research, and then upload the results. The software, which is due at the end of the month, will run when the PS3 system is not playing games or performing other multimedia tasks.

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Category: research, technology

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One Response to “Networked Computing comes to the PS3”

Cottleston Pie » Folding a PS3
March 17th, 2007 @ 12:36 am

[...] Just read a post about the PS3’s next software update – which will apparently have Folding@home, Stanford’s distributed computing protein folding software included. [...]