PS3 users try to cure Alzheimer's Disease

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 25th April 2007
Comments (18) Stumble
PS3 users try to cure Alzheimer's Disease

As over 250,000 PS3 users band together in Folding@Home, it seems the PS3 may yet have a redeeming feature to show.

Gamers worldwide may be angry with the PlayStation 3 for all number of reasons thanks to their marketing strategies, but one thing nobody can be mad about is the way the PS3 fanboys have embraced the Folding@Home project.

Folding@Home is a project begun at Stanford University that aims to use distributed computing to carry out studies in protein folding, a process that aims to provide cures in Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and some cancers, among others.

The PS3 community has now joined together in this project and, thanks to over 250,000 new contributors, has doubled the total processing power available to the project. The total amount of computing power used in the folding project now stands at just over 700 teraFLOPs a second, over half of which stems from PS3 users.

Still, PS3 owners aren't the only people who can contribute and bit-tech runs its own team of protein folders, also known as team 33346.

PS3 owners who haven't yet joined can do so by clicking the Folding@Home icon on the CrossMediaBar.

If you're planning on joining team bit-tech.net, or if there's anything we can do to persuade you over to our team, then let us know in the forums.
Quote konsta 25th April 2007, 15:17
not linked through from the story properly...

EDIT: ok...it wasn't first time I clicked.
Quote Krikkit 25th April 2007, 15:20
Great stuff - shame the PC client is so crappy.
Quote Jamie 25th April 2007, 15:31
So we can leave our Playstations running at full load but we can't leave our light bulbs on or use our cars. Oh No! That would cause carbon to seep into the atmosphere and cause global warming!
Quote Flibblebot 25th April 2007, 16:00
250,000? I didn't think Sony had sold that many PS3s! :D
Quote mclean007 25th April 2007, 16:20
Great news!

Quick typo -
Quote:
Originally Posted by article
stands at just over 700 teraFLOPs a second
teraFLOPS = (tera) floating point operations per second, so you're saying "...operations per second per second".
Quote [stuart] 25th April 2007, 18:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamie
So we can leave our Playstations running at full load but we can't leave our light bulbs on or use our cars. Oh No! That would cause carbon to seep into the atmosphere and cause global warming!

It's OK though, we'll cure cancer doing it!

The 200W used to power it though seems somewhat concerning if you're doing it 24/7 from a usage point of view.

Either way, even with all the good work PS3's are doing for research, I buy a games console to play games, not cure diseases and use alot of electricity.
Quote DXR_13KE 25th April 2007, 20:13
this will consume tons of power, but at least the console will be more useful.
Quote mattthegamer463 25th April 2007, 20:20
The PS3 receives a purpose.

Perhaps I'll get my print server pulling double duty for bit-techs team...
Quote Tulatin 25th April 2007, 21:29
I find that funny too, that while people chip away at their usage - 5w here, 3w here, oh can't have the house above 64.2 degrees, or the entire planet's my fault alone

Then they go introduce a 200w brick to their grid. I bet these will be the people to unplug alarm clocks while their kids sleep, too.

Beyond that, knowing the worksmanship of consoles lately, who's willing to bet that folding PS3s will croak the fastest - from electromigration, or dead fans.
Quote sandys 26th April 2007, 00:27
Wouldn't be such a bad thing ro run if it could actually do it in the background whilst playing vids or downloading but as it stands once launched you can't background download, hopefully the F@H guys or Sony fix that, I have no issue with it running, the client runs on my laptop, if the machine is on the difference between load and idle is about 10-15w so why not, the PS3 software needs fixed though so that I can still download stuff from PSN etc. whilst its running until then it won't be running on my PS3.
Quote devdevil85 26th April 2007, 01:16
You do get something back from all this power usage right? like points and stuff to redeem for gifts? I would hope so, but at the same time I would feel good doing this because someday I may need a cure for some disease.....you never know.... but the bill may still turn me off if I was to get a PS3
Quote mattthegamer463 26th April 2007, 02:16
I say we all take saving the environment to the next level. Build ocular sensors that turn off the lights when we blink to save energy. The energy saved over 10 years could light 3 homes for 2.1 seconds, and stop nearly .6kg of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere!

The answer isn't to turn off your lights, its to GET NEW FORMS OF RENEWABLE, CLEAN ENERGY. Its what all the smart people keep saying, because its not using energy thats bad, its making it. People don't seem to understand that. Its sad really.
Quote The_Beast 26th April 2007, 02:40
well at least you can choose to fold or not
Quote leviathan18 26th April 2007, 02:46
i preffer WCG than f@h and i hope ibm desings a client for the ps3 for wcg
Quote thecrownles 26th April 2007, 05:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattthegamer463
The answer isn't to turn off your lights, its to GET NEW FORMS OF RENEWABLE, CLEAN ENERGY. Its what all the smart people keep saying, because its not using energy thats bad, its making it. People don't seem to understand that. Its sad really.

Quoted for Truth.

And just look at it this way... if the PS3 is spewing 200W of heat into your living room, then that's just 200W that your central heating doesn't have to do. So we all break even in the end. Unless it's summer and you have the AC on. Then the earth cries.
Quote JaredC01 26th April 2007, 06:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattthegamer463
I say we all take saving the environment to the next level. Build ocular sensors that turn off the lights when we blink to save energy. The energy saved over 10 years could light 3 homes for 2.1 seconds, and stop nearly .6kg of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere!

The answer isn't to turn off your lights, its to GET NEW FORMS OF RENEWABLE, CLEAN ENERGY. Its what all the smart people keep saying, because its not using energy thats bad, its making it. People don't seem to understand that. Its sad really.
QFT as well... Surprisingly enough, Nuclear energy is by far the best source of clean energy we have, and can EASILY power hundreds of thousands of homes per single plant.
Quote eddtox 26th April 2007, 07:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaredC01
QFT as well... Surprisingly enough, Nuclear energy is by far the best source of clean energy we have, and can EASILY power hundreds of thousands of homes per single plant.

QFT. Unfortunately most people do not take the time to get all the facts about nuclear energy and are therefore left believing that it is dangerous and their children will grow extra eyes and limbs if they live next to a nuclear power plant. Granted, there are inherent problems with using nuclear energy, such as the question of what to do with the waste products, but considering the alternatives and their problems, I believe that it is the best option at the moment (except for renewable sources which unfortunately are as yet unable to supply the amount of energy we need)
Quote DougEdey 26th April 2007, 08:10
Best thing to do with waste products: Make them into tipped rounds.
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