article on Playstation 3 on cnet

[StevenYoo]

Link to article

kind of interesting. Sony is thinking about going the way of SETI@Home to research a method to raise the processing power of PS3 to 1000 times that of PS2.

"Moore's Law is too slow for us."

 

[UNCjigga]

I don't understand. In order for it to work, would you need a whole bunch of people playing the same game at the same time?? What if a game is three or four years old, or what if you like playing this one unpopular game. If there are less people playing, does game performance suck?? Does this mean that all PS3 games will be MMPO, with limited single-player games?

 

[StevenYoo]

<< I don't understand. In order for it to work, would you need a whole bunch of people playing the same game at the same time?? What if a game is three or four years old, or what if you like playing this one unpopular game. If there are less people playing, does game performance suck?? Does this mean that all PS3 games will be MMPO, with limited single-player games? >>



i think the distro computing is just for researching a way to make the PS3 more powerful. i don't think the PS3 unit will be a room full of networked PC's.

But wouldn't that be awesome?

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

That is pretty forward thinking. I just don't think there will be enough bandwidth coming into the average American house to "distribute."

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Nevermind, I misinterpreted the article, too.

 

[dakata24]

already talk about ps3... i dont even have a friggin ps2... i hope they drop prices soon...

 

[tops2]

i want a ps3!

man, i nevered owned a game console..sheesh

 

[ShotgunSteven]

They cannot even make the PS2 cover the cheques their PR department wrote, I expect the PS3 will be just another mediocre, overpriced piece of hardware like the first one.

 

[Egrimm]

They could make some kind of "distributed computing" with several processors, but why wouldn't they just call it multiprocessor then?

 

[AlwaysWong]

Looking further ahead, Okamoto saw even bigger changes for Sony's game business. "Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology," he said.

All your base are belong to us.

 

[Pastore]

you guys dont understand what distributed computing means...

it means that the PS3 would be hooked into a network, they are talking about Seti@home... all of the different computers (PS3s) on the network would share the load of the processing... so basically if your in new york, a computer in texas could be processing some textures for the game your playing... another computer could be processing some sprites for your game... it shares the load of a processor to get stuff done more ifficiently... they could possibly implement it to use cycles of a PS3 that is not currently running a game (a PS3 that is in sleep mode or something...)... the possibilities of this are honest to God endless...

heres a good definition...

Distributed computing

<< harnesses the unused processing abilities of computers scattered across the Internet >>

 

[AlwaysWong]

Sure, the processing power is 'limitless', but wouldn't the limiting factor be your ISP bandwidth? Things like SETI and cancer research have set tasks that are sent from the server, processed locally, then sent back. But, games require high speed processors because every time a button is pushed or a joystick is moved, a different action is performed. If a texture is sent 3000 miles away to be processed and then returned as quickly as 10 seconds later, wouldn't it still be 10 seconds too late? I mean, my Roadrunner connection is decent, but can it keep up with an intense game of Gran Turismo 5?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I think they are using the distributed computing as tool to help test new processor designs. If they want to increase the processing power, they need to move from the 32-bit cpu and go to a 64-bit cpu. that will triple or quad the cpu power. Then just make it a dual cpu machine and it's ready to go.

If they really want to increase the preformance of the machine, they need to teach the programmers how to code with the least amount of lines and bloat as possible.

 

[Egrimm]

<< you guys dont understand what distributed computing means... it means that the PS3 would be hooked into a network, they are talking about Seti@home... all of the different computers (PS3s) on the network would share the load of the processing... so basically if your in new york, a computer in texas could be processing some textures for the game your playing... another computer could be processing some sprites for your game... it shares the load of a processor to get stuff done more ifficiently... they could possibly implement it to use cycles of a PS3 that is not currently running a game (a PS3 that is in sleep mode or something...)... the possibilities of this are honest to God endless... heres a good definition... Distributed computing

<< harnesses the unused processing abilities of computers scattered across the Internet >>

>>



I know what distributed computing means, run Seti myself for the Team, but as the others have said it wouldn't work because of bandwith limitations. That's why I suggested that they might think of a more traditional multi-processor setup than real distributed computing after all.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< If they want to increase the processing power, they need to move from the 32-bit cpu and go to a 64-bit cpu. that will triple or quad the cpu power. >>


okay


<< Then just make it a dual cpu machine and it's ready to go. >>


well yeah that would make it more powerful, but who wants to buy a 500 dollar gaming machine?

 

[AkumaBao]

Hmmm...I wonder it they can get technology to keep up? If they were to find a way to make a 400GHz because of DC, what the hell would they be able to use in order to use it's full potential? Sounds like a plan that will just fall through the cracks. Maybe that's their whole reasoning behind making a Linux distro.

 

[ShadowDJ]

I'd buy a $500 system if i could. Rmember, there are people who bought the GeForce 3 when it was 500. That was when the joke circulated about board manufacturers shipping PCs with their cards.



<< All your base are belong to us >>


LMFAO... that still cracks me up. korny.

I read once that Sony had a prototype of a playstation 2 with 64 processors that could be designated to a certain task. I think it was wired. anyway, it sounds nuts.

 

[Syntax]

Interesting concept....

 

[Nefrodite]

i really don't see how that affects "real time gaming". if you want to harness the power of many computers to slowly render movie quality frames at maybe one frame a minute or something pixar style then yes distrib is good. but real time? i think not, latency from network far too long to be good for anything in real time graphics maybe if everyone had massive fiberoptics networks that would cut latency a little?? i dunno, still might have problems.. and thats not gonna happen until ps 20 or something remember larry elison saying that network pcs without harddrives running software off of network servers was coming soon becuz high speed networks are just around the corner!! oh yea.. i'm still waiting

sony ps marketing division with their ussual bullsh*t.

 

[ChrisIsBored]

<< remember larry elison saying that network pcs without harddrives running software off of network servers was coming soon becuz high speed networks are just around the corner!! oh yea.. i'm still waiting
>>



Ummm.. yeah sorry to disappoint but I think you fell off the train. They've been around. The hospital my uncle works at has hundreds of them.

I wouldn't expect you to see them at the consumer level(Best Buy, etc..) though because frankly... who's going to supply the file server for you?

 

[Nefrodite]

Ummm.. yeah sorry to disappoint but I think you fell off the train. They've been around. The hospital my uncle works at has hundreds of them.

I wouldn't expect you to see them at the consumer level(Best Buy, etc..) though because frankly... who's going to supply the file server for you?


if i fell off the train, you got ripped up under the wheels elison was talking about people not buying software, but renting it and running it from network, pc's without harddrives, net appliances would be all people would need!! HOME USE .. yes thats right, back in the days when people were making wild claims about the internet. and why would i be talking about anything but home use anyways u ninny. this is a thread on consoles. now we're happy if we can get overpriced speed capped, unreliable, transfer capped dsl/cable. net appliances and email only appliances have slowly vanished....