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The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

theverge.com

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Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#31

Post by kube-system »

leggomylibro wrote: post #22
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To play the devil's advocate, Sony is in the business of selling games, their cosnoles were just a means to that and since they were selling the hardware at a loss, selling more of it to people who will never buy games was bad for their business model.

Didn't they sell a bunch of PS3s to the US Air Force for research purposes? I'm sure that military personnel enjoy games as much as the next person, but it's probably not why they bought the machines. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomput...

They did. The article linked above mentions that it took them a while to convince Sony to agree to it.

Also, if you run the math in the article you linked, it may suggest they paid more than list price.

> core made of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles

> the PS3s for the supercomputer's core cost about $2 million

that's $1,136 per unit.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#33

Post by walrus01 »

That wire rack shelf (sans wheels) is still how some low budget colocation/dedicated server operators set up their hardware. Minitower or mid-tower microatx/ATX sized cases with low cost motherboards, CPU, power supplies. A cheap microatx sized tower case with one rear exhaust fan is $35.

Each system with one or two cat5e cables and a single power cable. In really low cost colocation facilities the limiting factor is often total kW of electricity and cooling available, not square footage of floor space.

It's been a common thing in the datacenter/dedicated server business for about 18-20 years.

The same general idea was adopted by Bitcoin miners using ASIC hardware, and later on with Ethereum mining again with systems using two or four GPUs connected to a low-cost ATX motherboard.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#34

Post by qxnqd »

scarface74 wrote: post #27
MrMember wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never buy another Sony console again after they removed the ability to run Linux on the PS3. It's one of the reasons I bought one and I used it a lot.

Do you think that Sony is having executive board meetings worrying about a few Linux users who won’t buy their consoles?

Yes, they share the room with the Facebook executives who worry about the HN users who will quit the social network.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#35

Post by walrus01 »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #10

It would be awesome if you could install Linux on modern Xbox or PS4 consoles and use them as PCs...

The hardware on a PS4 Pro or an Xbox One X is pretty anemic CPU-compute wise compared to what you could build for near the same cost.

Something like a $190 Ryzen 3600 on a $100 motherboard. Add RAM and a small low cost SSD, or just do network boot/PXE. Total cost might be somewhat more than buying a PS4 Pro but it would run circles around it in any cpu intensive application.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#36

Post by [deleted] »

kevingadd wrote: post #12
rvz wrote: post #8

This was the moment that Sony could have made something useful out of themselves here for allowing Linux to be used on a popular games console at the time, as in improving the accessibility of installing Linux on a computing machine. (Or even basing GameOS on Linux). Instead they cowardly remove it due to a 'hack' by Geohot and locked it down for 'security purposes' and potential researchers, scientists and those wit…

Plus they eventually got dinged for this because they had inexplicably advertised the Linux support, so removing it turned that into false advertising. Owners of the classic PS3 got a chunk of $ from a class action settlement.

[deleted]

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#37

Post by Gracana »

scarface74 wrote: post #27
MrMember wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never buy another Sony console again after they removed the ability to run Linux on the PS3. It's one of the reasons I bought one and I used it a lot.

Do you think that Sony is having executive board meetings worrying about a few Linux users who won’t buy their consoles?

Choosing not to buy products from a company you don't like seems pretty reasonable to me. It doesn't have to be a cunning plot to destroy the company.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#38

Post by ianai »

kube-system wrote: post #31
leggomylibro wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't they sell a bunch of PS3s to the US Air Force for research purposes? I'm sure that military personnel enjoy games as much as the next person, but it's probably not why they bought the machines. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomput...

They did. The article linked above mentions that it took them a while to convince Sony to agree to it. Also, if you run the math in the article you linked, it may suggest they paid more than list price. > core made of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles > the PS3s for the supercomputer's core cost about $2 million that's $1,136 per unit.

Definitely a completely different support contract than a consumer console. That sounds more like an amortization of how many consoles they’d need to support that large of a system for the life of the contract.

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#39

Post by theobeers »

capableweb wrote: post #2

When reading through this I was sure this was about Folding@Home but turns out this was a different project! Strange that Folding@Home isn't even mentioned, if I recall it correctly, you could install Folding@Home easily via the store on the PS3, and a normal user could contribute. The Verge article seems more focused on customized machine (rooted to run Linux and stored at location) instead of using the standard OS…

I had the same assumption. One of my college roommates (academic year 2008–09) got a PS3 and set up Folding@home on it. I thought that was so cool at the time. It was my first exposure to distributed computing (in this sense of the term).

Re: The rise and fall of the PlayStation supercomputers

#40

Post by DCKing »

rvz wrote: post #8

This was the moment that Sony could have made something useful out of themselves here for allowing Linux to be used on a popular games console at the time, as in improving the accessibility of installing Linux on a computing machine. (Or even basing GameOS on Linux). Instead they cowardly remove it due to a 'hack' by Geohot and locked it down for 'security purposes' and potential researchers, scientists and those wit…

This doesn't take anything away from Sony's decision making, but removing OtherOS never really helped them "get good security".

The PlayStation 3 was cracked wide open [1] without OtherOS and because people were pissed at its removal. On Playstation 3s released in the first 3.5 years of its lifespan you can get full hypervisor compromise without any hardware mods, and you can yet again run OtherOS on the latest firmware. Now with less restrictions than before. Newer PS3s (starting with CECH-25xx) have 'only' been partially compromised. They can't run OtherOS, but they can still run homebrew and piracy despite Sony taking OtherOS away.

Maybe it's a bit of solace that this stuff only punished Sony. But inevitably, the lesson they learnt is "we'll never experiment with this stuff again".

[1]: This video is really worth watching if you're interested in this stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUGGJpn2_zY

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