Noting that funding for science has run dry for many researchers, [Gaurav] has developed a supercomputer from 200 Playstation 3 consoles housed as well as chilled inside an old refrigerated shipping trailer. His objective at UMass Dartmouth from the national science Foundation is simulating black hole collisions with an eye on learning something about gravitational waves.
Dr. [Gaurav Khanna] is no complete stranger to utilizing PS3 supercomputers to do meaningful science. seven years back he suggested a 16-PS3 supercomputer running Linux as well as handled to persuade Sony to donate four consoles. The university kicked in funding for one more 8 as well as [Gaurav] ponied up for the last four out of his own pocket. He dubbed it the “PS3 Gravity Grid” as well as got worldwide interest for the cluster. For equivalent performance, it expense him only 10% the cost of a genuine supercomputer. This led to published papers on both hacked supercomputers as well as gravity waves. however that rig is looking a bit old today. go into the Air Force.
Dr. [Khanna] was not the only one utilizing PS3s to crunch data – back in 2010 the us Air force developed the “Condor Cluster” of 1,760 PS3s to perform radar imaging of entire cities as well as do neuromorphic AI research. With their hardware now expired, the Air force contributed 200 of the PS3s to [Gaurav] for his new build. now that he has wired them up, the Air force is contributing one more 220 for a not-snicker-proofed overall of 420.
For those sceptical that the now 8-year-old hardware is still cost-effective, even with free consoles it is marginal. RAM is an problem as well as contemporary graphics cards are each equivalent to 20 PS3s. ever the prominent target these days, Sony has the PS4 OS locked down from the get go – thanks Sony. The next cluster organized will be with PCs as well as graphics cards. For now, [Gaurav] has lots of calculations that requirement crunching as well as a queue of colleagues have developed behind him.