A Cure for Cancer with your PS3
Folding@Home Plugs Stanford University into PS3 Computing Power
Stanford University is using the PlayStation 3's advanced computing power for medical research and all PS3 owners can help out.
The Stanford University chemistry department has been borrowing people's idle computers since 2000 to do complex calculations. Now they'd like you to donate time on your PS3, as well.
Their mission is to figure out how proteins in the body assemble themselves (fold) which could lead to advances in research in cancer, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
Better understanding of proteins will also help research into nano-technology.
The project group has found ways to simulate protein folding on computer, but it requires a lot of processor power. While modern super computers have a few hundred processors working together, these calculations requires a few hundred thousand processors, according to FAQ on their website.
This is where Folding@Home comes in.
Users install software on their home computers, which will then network with the researchers, performing many of the calculations.
Thanks to the advanced processing power Sony packed into the PlayStation 3, the game console can also compute protein folding.
The required software can be downloaded through the PS3's menu and then also the console owner donating processing time has to do is fire it up and leave it on for eight hours (they planned this out so gamers could do this while sleeping).
More than 48,000 PS3 owners have joined in the project went live last week with more joining in every day. If you've got one of these powerful machines, consider it. Besides, you get to watch a nifty graphic display of the work being done.
