PS3s Calculate Black Holes

[Demon_Skeith]

PS3 users have known that their systems could be used for more than gaming and movie watching. Up to this point, one of the best uses has been the Folding@Home project (and its newest iteration, Life with PlayStation) to help researchers find a cure for cancer and other diseases. But now, Sony's systems are being used to help astronomers understand one of the mysteries of space. According to Space.com, researchers at both the University of Alabama, Huntsville and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth have created the PS3 Gravity Grid, a network of 16 PS3s grouped together in a cluster. The grid has been used to run simulations of gravitational waves and the speed of vibrations emanating from a black hole when an outside object disturbed the anomaly. Supposedly, instead of renting a supercomputer for five thousand dollars per simulation, the Gravity Grid cost six thousand dollars to build and can run an infinite amount of simulations without any additional cost.

source

 

[froggyboy604]

I wonder do the researchers secretely unplug a few units, and use them for gaming.