Over at the Playstation US blog they have posted that PlayStation 3 users have made a massive contribution to the Folding project with their aggregated computation power, having now contributed over a petaflops of data in the quest for research into medical science and diseases.
Have a look at the Folding website stats here to see how the PS3 is contributing the most.
Meanwhile, over at engadget you can read how IBM have worked with PlayStation 3 Cell processors to donate a supercomputer to the University of Maryland-Baltimore county. Using 32 Cell processors researchers are working to develop applications to harness that power. As they report “the supercomputer will dabble in visualization and computer modeling applications for aerospace / defense, financial services, healthcare / life sciences industries and weather.” Amazing.
all that power…n still Lair has a crap frame rate…makes u wonder if any developers out there can use the cell properly
Comment by Paul — Sep 27, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
The PS3 has a lot of power!
But it’s a Petaflops, not a Petaflop. FLOPS= FLoating Operations Per Second.
Comment by Mjolkchoklad — Sep 27, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
errr you might want to check your PS3 out Paul because the framerate was not the issue in Lair .. the learning curve on the controls was.
if the PS3 F@H team let you play music while you folded I would probably fold ALOT more.
Comment by sectionz — Sep 27, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
Just imagine: The Joined Power Of 32 Cell Processors!!!!
Could Host Some Mean XXX Sites On That Server!!!
—
On a serious note though - even though folding@home isn’t the reason I bought the console, it sure does make me feel good about myself being able to help out.
Comment by JohnSketch — Sep 27, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
If linking 32 of these up makes a super ocmputer imagine what linking 1000 would do, it might predict the future, like when Sony will issue that statement :p
Comment by Terry — Sep 27, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
I keep reading about some statement that Sony are supposed to make, but I have no idea what it’s to do with. Anyone enlighten me?
Comment by Paranoimia — Sep 27, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Sony said a while back that a statement would be forthcoming which would detail EXACTLY what the PSN has in store in terms of release dates etc and also why it lags behind the other stores, namely America. People keep mentioning it, myself included as its another example of Sony promising communication but not delivering.
Comment by Terry — Sep 27, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
The frame rate in LAIR is a massive issue
Myself and everyone else who finds 10- 15 frames per second at times a bit on the choppy side. It looks stunning when nothing is going on, or if you pause though!!! LAIR is an utter disaster for everyone concerned. A horrible, horrible game.
And it wasnt a “learning curve” problem with the controls…..LawLz !!!
it was the fact that the sixaxis motion controls were BROKEN even the developers themselves admit some of the moves only work 8/10 times (on a good day)…..Sony seemingly forced LAIRs developers to stick shoddy, broken motion controls down our necks not even giving us the option to turn it off
EDGE MAGAZINE today gives LAIR 3/10……truth hurts. OUCH!!!
LAIR is utter garbage- headed for a bargain bin near you very soon. I may pick up a copy in a couple of months for a fiver just for a laugh.
Comment by lawlz — Sep 27, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Totally unrelated but who thinks that Sony released the PS3 a year too early?
I love my PS3 and am continually amazed by the machine that sits under my telly. But the constant notification of delays in games is a clear indication that developers were not ready for the machine.
It would be shame if a machine so easily integrated into my home media set up would go the same route as the ill-fated dreamcast (RIP)
I personally cant see this happening due to the shear power of the machine and it’s abilities in multimedia (I can’t remember the last time I switched my PC on at home except to stream a film down to my PS3!) and if Heavenly Sword and warhawk are an example of the PS3 potential I’m very excited to see what they can come up with when they get to grips with the machine. It’s just a shame that content seems to be constantly slipping…..
Sorry to have hogged this comment stream but I had to say something……
Dan (BBRodriguez)
Comment by Daniel — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Daniel, the Cell architecture is very different from anything else on the market. Why do you think things would have been different if Sony had waited a year? Developers only bother looking at a system once it has a interesting market share so delaying the launch a year would probably only have delayed the learning curve for developers a year also. And most delays are probably due to other things than the Cell, seems the current cross platform games show that if you just use the Cell as a ‘normal’ PPC CPU you can quickly to ports from other PPC boxes like XBox and Wii.
I think the game release schedule has been quite as expected, slow in the beginning but then picking up. The number of titles available seems to at least double by Christmas time based on current release schedules and then triple by March/April again.
Comment by Christian — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
I already read a ’statement’ (of sorts) a while back that gave reasons for the UK/Euro stores being behind others. It was put down to the myriad of laws and languages in Europe. Can’t recall where I read it, but it was possibly in an issue of OPM.
The general angle was that, where the US and Japan are each governed by one set of laws, and speak the same language throughout, it’s easy to release a single demo for everyone. For Europe, they need to localise demos/games to numerous languages, and ensure that they’re not contravening any one nation’s laws and/or regulations. All of which - obviously - takes time.
Now that sounds quite reasonable to me. Yes, I know they manage to do things more ‘globally’ on XBL, but that’s a paid-for network, so MS probably have legions of people doing this work.
As I see it, there are 2 ways around the situation. Either they delay the US/Japan demos until the Euro version is ready, so we all get them at the same time (not gonna happen), or they employ a lot more people to work on the localisations (also unlikely to happen unless they start charging for PSN access).
The only other way we in the UK could get around that would be if - in terms of games - we were classed as part of the US, and were given their demos on our store - since we speak the same language… sort of!
Of course, that would leave the rest of Europe to wait on their own, and I doubt they’d be very happy about that. But when is Europe happy about anything that the UK does, anyway? ;-p
Also, if you think this through beyond the PSN demos, it has further ramifications - which I won’t go into here, since it’s way off of the article topic, and I’ve already rambled enough!
Comment by Paranoimia — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Who the hell cares about this monbo jumbo cell power crap! Where is my PES 2008 demo!!???
Comment by Fag — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Christian,
I wasn’t refering to the release schedule it was to the actuage slippage and delays from puplicised dates I was refering.
I’m convinced that Sony were under incredible pressure to release the Ps3 as early as possible to try and claw back some of the head start that the 360 and Wii had from their earlier release dates. I feel developers should have had more time with their develpment kits and less pressure to give out unrealistic release dates.
Are you saying to me that devlopers were waiting to see how the PS3 sold before they started developing for the machine?
I do take on your point that the PS3 is very different from anything else on the market and therefore very different to develop for but this doesn’t completely explain why most release dates are slipping.
I must say that it’s nice to have an intelligent discussion about this subject rather than
“WHERE’S IN-GAME XMB YOU MORONS!
WHERE’S IN-GAME XMB YOU MORONS!
WHERE’S IN-GAME XMB YOU MORONS!
WHERE’S IN-GAME XMB YOU MORONS!”
(sorry carl)
Dan (BBRodriguez)
Comment by Daniel — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
@Dan (BBRodriguez)
Sony were originally going to release the ps3 late 2007(if i find the original satement - ill link you to it)
I think they were to worried about being behind everyone else so it was released early, I still think they should have released it november 2007 not 2006…there bye giving devlopers time to perfect there games……but saying that - how would you get beta testers to try out all these great games b4 release?…who knows, but we’ve got it now and we love it…so keep it coming sony!
Comment by linton — Sep 27, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
I dont care about XMB ingame, its the other Carl (see captial C). While I do find it a little annoying to have to quit out of a game to read a message, I can live with out it.
Have a read of this it is very enlighting about how Sony might implement XMB in game
http://www.innerbits.com/blog/2007/09/13/how-to-address-the-memory-issues-on-the-ps3/
Comment by carl — Sep 27, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
So sorry carl, my bad!
Please accept my apologies.
Great article btw, well found!
Dan (BBRodriguez)
Comment by Daniel — Sep 27, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Perhaps if PS£ was delayed til november 2007 and the likes of Gran Turismo, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, MGS4 and GTA4 (all exclusives) were brought to launch the PS3 would have made a much bigger impact.
Anyhow I’m await the PSN update…
“drum roll”…
Comment by Terry — Sep 27, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
@2. Thanks - have amended.
Comment by Three Speech — Sep 27, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
@13/Dan
Well but many games do seem to ship on time and at the same time across platforms. If the PS3 versions where a little delayed everytime, like DiRT then I would agree that it could point to the Cell/time with devkits being the problem. But some of the delays are so heavy that I assume the are other explanations. I mean take a game like Singstar, which has been heavily delayed. Singstar is obviously not a game that should pose any challenges in terms of cramming a lot of CPU or graphics power out of the box. So the explanation there is more likely to be found elsewhere, like negotiations over song rights or getting a server infrastructure in place for the online features etc.
Another recent Delay is ‘Home’, once again I assume the problems they found there are not related to trouble getting the needed CPU or graphics performance from the box. Rather once again I would think online infrastructure is the bigger part of the challenge. Making wild guesses maybe they found their VoIP features not handling mixing 30 people speaking at the same time working to well for instance.
GTA is another delayed title where there has been rumours claiming its the difficulty PS3 architecture which is to blame. The articles I have seen trying to make guesses (since the developers haven’t really ever given any more than vague hints) seems to conclude that the issues causing the delays of the magnitude we are seeing are likely other things than the PS3 architecture. My guess would maybe be that the developers feeling a need to impress/make a splash might have gotten them into trouble in terms of developing towards a moving target. An example here would be Halo3 where a lot of previews (and reviews) did mention that the graphics felt a tad dated. The Halo3 devs kept their cool and didn’t start trying to revamp their graphics engine in order to try to ensure being ‘the most’ graphically impressive game out there. Maybe the GTA devs have similar challenges, but hasn’t kept their cool, instead have been trying to match the latest and greatest in terms of graphics and thus causing huge delays in their production. My take is that huge productions like these games can be easily derailed if the developers lose faith in their gameplay being able to win throug,h in competition with smaller in scope/development time games which easier can aim at taking the graphics throne.
Comment by Christian — Sep 27, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
Another crap store update, dam it. Well at least we got some of the OLD US content like wallpapers and the Spiderman 3 DLC.
Comment by carl — Sep 27, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
I think the death knell has just sounded for PS3, I’ve just seen that Halo3 has made £84m in it’s first 24 hours. This game is going to sell a heck of a lot of 360s for them and we put out announcements about Wipeout HD, some blah about Folding and an awards thingy that means nothing to the gamers.
Sony must do something fast, I thought they would have a plan for this very occasion but I thought too much of them, they are run by a bunch of complete morons after all.
Comment by Ton Capone — Sep 27, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
sorry, but that engadget link has bugger all to do with the cell processor, it’s just a blatent link to a review site. pfffft.
store update news plz??? (USA and UK)
i did find the new vehicle pack for motorstorm but nothing else. no news on us.blog either.
it’s enough to make me paraniod *hids in corner under duvet*
*runs out again and loads up warhawk*
oh and for us ps2 eyetoy owners it would be nice to have a ’snapshot’ option on the camera test screen or something. also i note you can use it’s inbuilt mic to chat instead of having a headset, if you have one go try it out. it’s a cheap alternative.
Comment by mobiletone — Sep 27, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
An old demo and one that went up on the US store last week…ooh Sony you do spoil us and your £425 paperweight. This is not living this is painful. It’s bad enough there are a dearth of games but even the ones released are either sub-par ports or are full of bugs (I’m looking at you Ubisoft - RV6 and GRAW2) what the hell are we supposed to do with no decent downloads??
As for threespeech, I used to think it was a good site but it seems to have about as much pull with Sony as the consumers in the European territories and all the site seems to do these days is publish propaganda.
God forbid any of the so-called games journalists take Sony to account for this, they’re too busy sucking up to get freebies.
All this in the week MS release Halo 3, way to go Sony…I’m off down the shops to buy an Xbox 360 and some GAMES (instead of changing entries in the wikipedia Sony you might be better spending your time looking at what type of software is supposed to run on a games console….)
Comment by rick_x — Sep 27, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
EU store (Austria) update
Folklore Demo (new one it says…)
Sega Rally Demo
Motorstorm: Capitano & Varjack cars
Ninja Gaiden: Master of Speed
Warhawk & Heavenly Sword Wallpapers (finally in Europe too…)
Feel Ski Trailer
inFamous Trailer
PES 2008 Trailer
Comment by martin — Sep 27, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
Here is an interesting link.
Cell alone (before you even add RSX performance), can trounce a NVidia G80…
http://gametomorrow.com/blog/index.php/2007/09/05/cell-vs-g80/
Comment by Mark Gillespie — Sep 27, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
The community needs to keep pushing for a an update to Lair. There is greatness in that game, it just needs to be fixed. Sony, how many reviews does it take? how many requests do you need?
Fix Lair up, don’t require sixaxis controls and fix the bugs in the game, add a map system and maybe some sort of multi-player and you will have a killer game.
Comment by Jack — Sep 27, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
@ Carl, stop spamming. I’m sick of every single topic being plagued by your worthless spam.
They know people want in game XMB. They have said its been worked on. Repeatedly spamming topics, doesn’t mean it will take less time to implement. Give up.
Comment by Tom Eccles — Sep 27, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
Lair was pretty good, i didn’t notice any frame drops other than when it went into the slo-motion spinning camera thing when on the ground attacking people. The controls were easy to use and made a mundane story game fun for me. My issue with the game was the bad ground texturing. That, and no multiplayer.
Comment by Josh — Sep 27, 2007 @ 10:59 pm
It wasnt me Threespeech has the email address they can cheek it, we really need a log on name so that people cant frame me.
Comment by carl — Sep 27, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
@21: Sony is doing exactly what they should be doing in this situation. Nothing. Quickly trying to bring something out and spend shitloads of money on trying to market it against the most hyped title of the competition is a waste of time and money. Instead they are saving their big titles and announcement until the Halo hola dies down in some weeks.
For instance pushing for a Haze release now would be stupid as they risk it drowning in Halo news, better see it out in November as planned when the trade press, websites and gamers think Halo is old news and need something new.
Comment by Christian — Sep 28, 2007 @ 9:33 am
@29 - Why don’t you just change you name to your first name and then surname when you post? Save you having to inform us every time it’s not you but some little immature child that keeps on copying and pasting the same worthless rubbish on every thread all the time.
@26 - Grow up. So what, you want to listen to “Fiddy Cent” when you’re playing a game. Put a CD in your CD player instead if it’s soooo important to you at the moment. So you want to talk to your friends (I’m surprised you have any the way you talk) - well pick up a phone. May be if you sent a polite email or letter to Sony, written in proper English, simply asking if they have any news for you on when you can expect the XMB to be incorporated into games as you feel that this is essential to your enjoyment of their wonderful new console, then you may actually find you get a response.
By swearing and making pathetic childish demands that make you sound like a 5-year old, chav, spoilt brat being forced around Asda by its pikey mother demanding every sweet, chocolate bar and toy on the shelf and crying because you don’t get them all isn’t going to get you anywhere -ever. Do you really think Sony are going to send a statement to 3 Speech saying “Hey guys, we read the wonderful, constructive comments by carl on your site and felt that this issue regarding the XMB and Euro PSN that he feels so strongly about deserves our full attention right this minute so here is our statement…”
Comment by Dave Vincent — Sep 28, 2007 @ 10:18 am
Go Dave!
Remind me never to get on your bad side!
That was a better bollocking than my mum could ever do and she scares the shit out of me!
Nice one.
Comment by Daniel — Sep 28, 2007 @ 10:30 am
Guys, I think you posted the wrong link. Those are units submitted by people who haven’t changed their folding name.
A better link is this:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats
Which shows roughly 3/4 of all work currently done is by PS3’s.
Comment by B — Sep 28, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Threespeech you really have to start doing something about these imature and worthless posts.
Otherwise some people might start to be put off your site which would be a shame.
I know you value your openess and free speech policy but comments like 22 and 26 are starting to get annoying and they contribute nothing to what is an excellent site.
Comment by Dan (BBRodriguez) — Sep 28, 2007 @ 10:36 am
@ Dan. Yep, we’ve deleted those comments.
Comment by Three Speech — Sep 28, 2007 @ 11:12 am
Well done guys!!
Just like to say ignore my previous post now.
Due to the deleted posts the numbers no longer relate.
Didn’t want to offend anyone!
Comment by Dan (BBRodriguez) — Sep 28, 2007 @ 11:24 am
@35
Nice one threespeech.
Seems like there’s a bit of community spirit building here which is good to see. Not actually a PS3 owner yet myself, but it won’t be long, and some of the more articulate people on here are leading me to the conclusion that PS3 is the way forward for this ‘gen’.
I’ve been a gamer since the Master System/NES days, and can see the similarities between the launch year of PS3 and PS2 & PS1 (both of which I bought at launch). All the people moaning on here about simple things like free demos need to get a reality check. Have a bit of faith and patience and you’ll be rewarded with some great games & entertainment in the coming months.
For those of you who’ve owned several Sony consoles, I’m sure you’re looking forward to the AAA titles in development & that warm ‘fuzzy’ sensation that I got when first booting up arcade perfect Ridge Racer, Metal Gear Solid, Wipeout 2097, Tekken 2, FF7 etc…on PS1, and GT3, FF10, MGS2, Devil May Cry, Pro Evo, GTA etc…on PS2!
Comment by mrsatansdojo — Sep 28, 2007 @ 11:47 am
As above - on my previous post I refer to number 26, but now that post has been removed, it no longer applies (well it still applies to EVERY other thread that our dear carl (the Copy n Paste carl that is) has posted his comments to…)
Comment by Dave Vincent — Sep 28, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
@24
I can’t not comment on that post about the cell being better than the G80.
So a Multi-purpose Cell running at 3.2 GHz(1 main core, 7 sub cores) is better at raytracing than a Graphics Processor designed for triangle rasterising running at 615 MHz(1 Core).
Only 5 times better is pretty shocking performance. I think I’ll go with the Intel 8 core for any raytracing that I need.
: D
Comment by mono_eric3 — Sep 28, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
“even the developers themselves admit some of the moves only work 8/10 times”
I remember them saying this on a positive note as he said they pull off a 180 aboout 8/10 times which is around the same they do on thew Wii.
“EDGE MAGAZINE today gives LAIR 3/10″
Well thats an unfair review and if its an average then they’re giving visuals, sound and story very low underrated scores.
Comment by bamf — Sep 28, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Can’t blame you, Sony, but it’s misleading the consumer when IBM uses 2 Cells.
Comment by bGaming — Sep 28, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
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