PS2 the Supercomputer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2940422.stm

Scientists at the US National Center for Supercomputing Applications, (NCSA) have linked together 70 PlayStation 2s to find out how good they are at crunching numbers.

/versus/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

Tell me if there is something wrong with connecting 70 Xbox together, i mean you have a bit more memory to work with, a better cpu etc. Or is this some sort of Sony marketing strategy.

 

Its Sony marketing at its best, they provided the PS2s and sponsor the tests.

 

This also is fuel to the reason selling PS2's in China was suppose to be forbidden. Since it shows Sony would be in violation of selling materials capable of being turned into Supercomputers and potentially be used for missile guidance systems. <shrug>

 

I bet thats why PS2 was banned in Iraq /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[ QUOTE ]
replicant said:

This also is fuel to the reason selling PS2's in China was suppose to be forbidden. Since it shows Sony would be in violation of selling materials capable of being turned into Supercomputers and potentially be used for missile guidance systems. <shrug>

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a stupid reason. The Chinese have way more advanced supercomputers that a PS2. Plus how hard is it going to be to just go buy one from Taiwan or Hong Kong?

 

It may be a stupid reason, but the US and many other territiories have had restrictions on the electronics able to be sold to China for a very long time. China is a "Tier-3" nation which also includes Russia, Isreal, and about 40 some odd more nations that have these same restrictions. It wasn't until 1995 or 1996 that China was even allowed to buy computers from the US, but Clinton felt restrictions should be lifted some. Any computer over 250G FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second) can't be sold to "Teir-3" nations without federal approval. Also, machines that allow the ability for multi-linking to increase it's core ability falls under this as well such as a PS2. Funny thing is China currently has a SC over 1000G FLOPS already. The reason being that these machines are very necessary for proper nuclear testing among many other reasons.