Scientist Using Eight PlayStation 3s to Study Gravity
Whoever said video games were a waste of time is totally eating his words right now. 
Wired News reports that a cluster of eight interlinked PlayStation 3's is actually solving "a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star." Which we'd explain to you in layman's terms, except for we think those may actually be layman's terms, in addition to the fact that we forgot our astrophysicist degrees at home this week.
Dr. Gaurav Khanna, the main scientist behind the research, is employing the PS3s to help measure the ripples in the space-time continuum that travel at the speed of light. The fact that the PS3 uses a version of Linux to work its magic is essentially what allows for the research to be done -- Linux is a very open system, and customizing it for the needs of the project was relatively easy.
"Basically, it's almost like a replacement," Khanna says. "I don't have to use that supercomputer anymore, which is a good thing."
From Wired News
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DP @ Oct 19th 2007 12:20AM
Uh....yea...what he just said.
Mithun D @ Oct 19th 2007 9:36AM
hey at least someone's using the PS3 for something !
tojfs7931 @ Mar 9th 2008 3:14PM
I beg to differ. the ps3 is the cheapest blu ray player on the market right now that just HAPPENS to play games.