Why Does the Air Force Want Thousands of PlayStations?

ABC News: Clusters of High-Performance Gaming Consoles Can Serve as Supercomputers

[PirateThom]

They're fanboys and just want to boost PS3 sales figures.

[Noctis Aftermath]

Because it only does everything.

[Dutch Boogie]

They want to build surrogate soldiers and deploy them into Afghanistan.

[Bits-N-Kibbles]

and hilarious.

Its like going to a hostess factory and they have 10,000 easy bake ovens because it was more cost effective for the same quality.

[Saaking]

They know the PS3 is the one and only console that can serve their needs. It's not just a game console, it only does everything.

[Government Cheese]

Because they have too much free time on their hands now that the Predator drone does all the work

[eagle21]

Bless his innovative heart.

[rambi80]

Maybe Sony built a giant "laser" and is threatening governments around the world.

Though the ps3 may be able to give us an actual moon landing . lol

[ThanatosDMC]

Aliens, UFO, 2012, Nicholas Cage...

[kaveti6616]

They're trying to build Skynet.

[Timesplitter14]

Because PS3 games are just THAT good

[Comet]

Imagine a commercial showing how the Air Force relies on PS3s for supercomputing power to create the technology that is protecting us and fighting the war in Afghanistan or w/e!!!
Just like those Duracell battery commercials! How the Coastguards, etc. trusts Duracell to get the job done and save someone's life :D

"According to a document accompanying the Air Force RFP, a server configured with two 3.2GHz cell processors can cost up to $8,000, while two Sony PS3s cost just a fraction of that price at about $600."
That's right... your PlayStation 3's cell processor alone can cost up to $4000! And people complained about the $600 starting price point! Be thankful!! LOL

"Astrophysicists at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth are using a cluster of PS3 consoles to research gravitational waves and black holes.
And even the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Cyber Crimes Center has used linked PS3s to solve Internet crimes."

"T3h pow3r of c3ll"

[Shadow Flare]

Astro physicists use ps3 clusters, medical researchers use ps3 clusters, the military use ps3 clusters....

Why don't researchers ever use the xbox 360? ;p

http://www.n4g.com/News-376...

[HolyOrangeCows]

Training with the Bad Company 2 Beta?
Skynet?
Playing Awesome games?
Cells make for cheaper Super computers?
It only does everything, including seeking Osama Bin Ladin?

[nbsmatambo]

i can just imagine them switching use for the PS3 from modeling terrains and controlling unmanned flying objects to playing Little Big Planet

:D

[Foliage]

Well it would take at least 3 times as many 360s to get anywhere near a similar result. Taking into consideration that the majority of 360s face RROD (fact, and the figure is still growing), they would need at least 5 times as many consoles. Not worth it.

And the Wii.... well really... are you serious?

[FarEastOrient]

I guess you can call me a fan too! I use it for the US Army...

[rockleex]

Boom!

Boom to the power of Boom!

Seriously, those PS3s are going to help unleash major Booms over in the Middle East.

By the way, I thought PS3 slims can't install other OS? I think they might have to buy older PS3s.

[thebudgetgamer]

:)

[Dutch Boogie]

Artificial Intelligent women.

[thebudgetgamer]

also good.

on second thought. do we really want super smart women running around.
i have a regular gf and shes to smart for me to get away with stuff.
or im just really dumb, she says im special.

[xg-ei8ht]

No they want to run a server with PS3's, Then other PS3 players can join in and fly the jets/

Beta is due out soon.

[Bits-N-Kibbles]

kids start playing violent video games which actually turn out to be real military vehicles.

Or at least that is what I remember from about 10 years ago.

[whothedog]

Yeah, they want the PS3's for "research" haha

interesting read though.

[devilmaycry2020]

LAN party of course!

[El_Colombiano]

MAG LAN party of course. Thats nearly nine full game rooms!

[Reshun]

Laz0rs!11!one!!

[lordkemp007]

They may want thousands of PS3's

But they also want tens of thousands of xbox 360's.

To light up their runways with red lights.

[bigcheda]

lol, that made me chuckle

[Hellsvacancy]

Lol it did me 2, bubbles

[SSCOOLCHEA]

Shlt is like a time bomb blowing up planes and navy ships . There airforce is not that dumb

[Mista T]

lol man funny that was an original joke on this site! bubbles :P

[Obama]

That will also make the runways 100 times nosier considering the 360s sound like jet engine.

[bot slayer]

lol lol lol lol lol lol

[poopsack]

Boom.

[SARGEHALO666]

...they want to play!

[ukilnme]

That is a great reason. I just started playing it. The game is freaking awesome.

[emk2004]

ps3 processor >>>>>> that xbox360 processor the usaf says so

[kaveti6616]

The 360 processor is standard CPU architecture. It's boring, to be honest. Not weak, just a boring setup.

The PS3 Cell is interesting, exotic. The Cell represents the concept that the CPU can meld with the GPU. Discrete circuits evolved into integrated circuits. ICs evolved into generalized and specified microprocessors. The next step is to integrate CPU chips, memory chips, GPU chips, and all kinds of microprocessors into discrete chips that can do everything exceptionally well. Jack of All trades, master of none, and the future is Master of All Trades.

[MajesticBeast]

Cause duh it only does everything.

[neonlight45]

talk about an all round console

[ukilnme]

I want thousands of PS3s. Just wish I had their budget.

[Heaven_Or_Hell]

I can't imagine what results we could get if the 27 millions PS3 solded worldwide were being linked together...

Earth Explosion for sure and WWIII declared lol

[jivah]

wats a solded?

[Narutone66]

of sold? ;)

[badz149]

but LOL @ solded!

[spektical]

uhh i think its obvious, they are gearing up for MAG... duh

[NoOoB101]

your right they wouldn't want that, that's why they no longer use C4, instead they put a 360 and leave it on...BOOM. Building demolished. =]

[Convas]

Ha ha, thanks for the chuckles. I found that genuinely amusing.

[deshon09]

shoot them at the enemy and then go pick them up and play some killzone 3 and uncharted lol

like they say it only dose every thing even kill your enemies

[Comet]

"Astrophysicists at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth are using a cluster of PS3 consoles to research gravitational waves and black holes.
And even the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Cyber Crimes Center has used linked PS3s to solve Internet crimes."

"T3h pow3r of c3ll"

[Renewman]

We bought those PS3s to keep ourselves busy since we just get AC-130s and Predator Missiles to beat the terrorists by themselves. Maybe we can get the PS3s to calculate how long it would take to make me a sandwich while I'm at my comfy desk job. I kid.

[OSIRUSSS]

AirForce? Flyboys must want a really dogfight in Warhawk. I would own them though. I'd Make them scared to leave homebase.

[djfullshred]

Cool to have such an advanced processer in a little toy like this.

[cmrbe]

plan to build syknet. For those of you who don't know yet. Ken is a terminator sent to speed up syknet development through the playstation.

[deshon09]

makes so much sense

[cmrbe]

its true. Do you remember PS launching and controlling missiles?. It is why Ken wanted the PS3 to be more advance than it is now. Fortunately Sony got wind of this and booted Ken out.

Skynet will start with the Airforce.

[Silent]

They want to play that game and find it more reliable than the PCs

[Quadrix]

Because PlayStation knows where the weapons of mass destruction are located.

[gumgum99]

lol

[bigrudowsky]

This is cool but havent other places been using the ps3 for the same reasons.

[theDutchFella]

the next generation of fighters are all going to be unmanned, so we're in the process of integrating PS3's into the flight controls of next gen aircraft. They will be remotely piloted by what we call 'Gamer Airman', via a DualShock 3 and Bravia displays. It Only Does Everything. :)

[Immortal321]

it already won

[infekt]

What can't you do with a PS3? I mean, this is some ridiculously cool sh1t that I'm sure Sony didn't think of when they made the console. The Playstation brand always packed processing power and that is Sony's trademark now.

[Wrathman]

YLOD=HYPNOLIGHT OF DEATH. or they have seen how it brainwashes 90% of sony fanboys on N4G and want to try it out on the taliban

[Narutone66]

of complex equations. Now if you want to kill terrorists with explosion, then drop them an xbox 360.

[SpinalRemains138]

They're playing online MW2 and teaching US Rangers how to camp during close quarter combat! LMAO! I can see Afghani insurgents now.... "God Dam American campers! They shot 9 of my Al Queda friends cuz they're campers man!"

[gumgum99]

Skynet.

[psiom]

Would I be right in thinking that this kind of thing is bad for Game Console manufacturers?

The machines are being sold at a loss (or are those days gone?) with the view that the revenue will return in the form of game sales, but obviously with a purchase like this that's not going to happen.

[CrippleH]

I'm pretty sure they want the older models. The ones with Linex support. They are buying it from auctions and such so it won't matter. The money is going to the consumers of the previous models.

[Punch-o]

They are all in our dorm lobbys thats for sure.

[jaseo]

From my understanding you need to install linux on the PS3 to setup the high performance clustering. The current PS3 model (Slim) does not have linux support. It makes it hard to set this up now :(

I would love if we could cluster PS3 for gaming. So games would have graphical settings based on the number of clustered PS3s.

[Shendow]

They are going to make Judgment Day come true lol, anyways it seems the PS3 is the only system being use as a Super Computer and I got to say that isn't a bad idea.

Because when they aren't using it to planing out attacks or something, they can play games or list to music or watch movies.

[JeepGamer]

I think it's likely they are testing the viability of creating powerful computers using clusters of game consoles. Not because they need them but because they're concerned what countries with not-so-friendly attitudes toward the United States might do with them.