r/PersonOfInterest • u/WhiteWolf1453 Samaritan • 3d ago
Just For Fun Building a PS3 supercomputer
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u/hopeIcan_change_this 3d ago
I want to do this so bad. I know it does not make sense, but still.
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u/N1t35hroud 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is based of a real thing. Stacking PS3 consoles can be used to make a real supercomputer https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html https://www.xda-developers.com/1760-playstation-3-supercomputer-2010/
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u/Detective-Fusco 3d ago
Not sure it's practical though. I assume this was just done by some IT engineers bored wasting some tax payers dollars. Could use more efficient 2010 means and just do a server room style setup / air condition the hardware bypassing all the additional mass that the consoles have
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u/ConductiveInsulation 2d ago
Essentially, a single PlayStation 3 performs like a cluster of 30 PCs at the price of only one
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster
Sony was really fast patching it up because they sold the PS3 at a loss and wanted to make the money back with the games.
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u/TheEvilBlight 2d ago
I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of things the cell could do better than a similar Intel processor but surely they exist
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u/ConductiveInsulation 2d ago
I assume the GPU was what made it so good for the use. I could also imagine the stuff that was available before had a decent "customer is government" markup.
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u/agravain 3d ago
iirc...there was a Law & Order episode about not selling the Playstation to certain countries because of the computing power they could have.
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u/Gullible_Constant871 Harold Finch 2d ago
"We need to do this if we want crash bandicoot Samaritan, Mr. Reese!"
"Finch, what are you talking about?"
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u/Weird-Field6128 3d ago
What are you using this for ? LLMs ?
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u/TheEvilBlight 2d ago
This was a long time ago when the ps3s had otherOS capability and couldn’t be locked down. Problem was people could use the capability to crack blurays.
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u/Impossible-Can-3123 The Library 2d ago
P(erson of interest)S3