The PS3 was a ridiculous machine

The computer hardware landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. What once was full of custom hardware are now consolidating into a few standards.

The PS3 was one example of such custom hardware. It was so different from everything else that it found use in the scientific field. Unfortunately that very same reason eventually bought about its downfall.

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0:00 Intro
0:34 Economics of PS3
2:44 Unique architecture of PS3
3:20 How the CPU & GPU works
4:23 Rise of CPU parallelization
5:44 Cell CPU & How it works
7:32 The fall of the Cell & PS3
8:38 Use in scientific field
10:44 Removal of OtherOS
12:32 Future developments

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Further Reading

There is in fact a project that uses more PS3 than the condor cluster[0]. It’s not included in the video since it’s not very well known.

More details of the architecture of the PS3 could be read in this excellent analysis[1].

Original NVIDIA video of CPU vs GPU demonstration[2].

[0] https://www.hpcwire.com/2013/03/07/jo...
[1] https://www.copetti.org/writings/cons...
[2] Mythbusters Demo GPU versus CPU

#technology #technologyexplained #playstation #playstation3 #supercomputer #cpu #gpu