SCE Joins Stanford's Folding@home Program (B3D ID=32377)

[Dave Baumann]

Had this debate already. Suggest you search. In summary though, Xenos should be faster, but more limited in scope of type of work.

Actually, with MEMEXPORT, the scope of the work would be pretty similar to the current projects that are being done on Cell at the moment. The other benefit (which is blindly obvious, but didn't occur until I talked to Mike Houston about it) is that the CPU is free to do other types of workloads on simultaneously.

 

[-tkf-]

Actually, with MEMEXPORT, the scope of the work would be pretty similar to the current projects that are being done on Cell at the moment. The other benefit (which is blindly obvious, but didn't occur until I talked to Mike Houston about it) is that the CPU is free to do other types of workloads on simultaneously.

That would be cool, i doubt that Microsoft is gonna try and pick this fight though, not because they wouldn´t win but because their Consoles would burn themselves to death.

Can the RSX in any way or shape be used in the PS3?

 

[thatdude90210]

That would be cool, i doubt that Microsoft is gonna try and pick this fight though, not because they wouldn´t win but because their Consoles would burn themselves to death.

Or it may lessen breakdowns due to fewer hot & cold temperature cycles.

 

[Rainbow Man]

That would be cool, i doubt that Microsoft is gonna try and pick this fight though, not because they wouldn´t win but because their Consoles would burn themselves to death.

I dion't think they would actually do that. At least not any worse than playing games on them so it wouldn't be any different for MS from that perspective.

If the console is destined to die an early death it's the same if it was folding or gaming ro whatever. This 360 dying is slowly attaining a kind of urban folktale status I think hehe.

MS probably isn't interested in this because it's not their main focus. They're losing money on this thing still So they don't want their 360s sitting there twiddling their thumsb folding. Or worse selling a lot of expensive money-losing consoles to crazy folders who'll use them for nothing but racking up points. Thry want people to go out and buy games and play them.

Also. The 360 isn't really that quiet. I know even if the 360 had a folding client and was faster at folding than PS3 I probably wouldn't use it becaue I couldn't stand the extra noise. Heat is also an issue. PS3 probably raises room temp by a degree (C... Coz I like being international and all) all by itself.
Peace.

 

[Zen]

Xbox 360 could beat PS3 in Folding?

Xbox 360 could beat PS3 in Folding

Microsoft has to think outside the box

By Theo Valich: Thursday 10 May 2007, 09:24
Click here to find out more!
IN AN INTERVIEW with the San Jose Mercury News Peter Moore, corporate VP of Microsoft's entertainment business unit admitted that Microsoft was somewhat caught out by Sony's PS3 Folding@Home client. He said even Bill Gates had a conversation about "applying philanthropic processing power to big problems".

But he souldn't resist a jab at Sony's endeavour. "I’m not quite sure yet whether we’re seeing real tangible results from the PlayStation 3 Folding@Home initiative," he suggested.

Microsoft knows all the deficiencies of IBM's sluggish in-order triple-core PowerPC that is built inside its own console, and does not want to get soundly beaten by IBM's Cell. However, it is unclear whether the Vole of Redmond is aware that it has something far more powerful inside its own boxes.

The Geforce 7900 inside the PS3 is no match for Xenos in the Xbox. Even the Sony Cell would probably end beaten by 48 vec4+scalar units hidden inside Xbox's 360 graphics chip. Folding@Home is Stream Computing at its finest, and six/seven/eight SPE units can flourish in the CPU. But when compared to the GPU, the Xbox 360 GPU would probably run in circles around Cell CPU.

And then Microsoft's marketing machine might get interested in touting Folding@Home for the Xbox 360 console, since it would no longer be a race between a snail and a rabbit, as far as protein folding performance is concerned.

The next question would then be, could Brook get set up running on a Xbox 360 GPU with all the limitations that Microsoft environment is using?

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39508

With a grain of salt?

 

[Phil]

This has already been discussed in the folding home thread. Nothing of interest or new in here.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

If you take a look on the amount of gflops that the ps3 is doing and compare it to what the X1XXX ATI's its absolutely possible.

 

[-tkf-]

If you take a look on the amount of gflops that the ps3 is doing and compare it to what the X1XXX ATI's its absolutely possible.

Apples to Oranges.

In a nutshell, the PS3 takes the middle ground between GPU's (extreme speed, but at limited types of WU's) and CPU's (less speed, but more flexibility in types of WU's).

As always the Inq is pissing against the wind, not a surprise. But as i said in the other thread, Microsoft doing this would be good for Folding@Home but it would be costly with the numbers of failures they would add to their rep.

 

[archangelmorph]

As always the Inq is pissing against the wind, not a surprise. But as i said in the other thread, Microsoft doing this would be good for Folding@Home but it would be costly with the numbers of failures they would add to their rep.

Hahahahaha!

That's a great little comment tkf!!

(Actually I shouldn't be laughing about the 360s failure rate... Mine's only two weeks old and i've been getting read errors already.. )

 

[Cheezdoodles]

How is it apples to oranges? The Ati X1XXX GPU's are averaging ~70gflops each when folding.

 

[-tkf-]

How is it apples to oranges? The Ati X1XXX GPU's are averaging ~70gflops each when folding.

And your absolutely sure that a gigaflop count from one type WU can be compared to another type of WU?

EDIT:
As you see here there are essentially 3 types of clients, as the clients get faster their scope of work gets limited and specialized.
http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

 

[Synergy34]

Ha, i don't have any faith in my 360 to last a few years running games, no way i would take part in this if it came to the 360. Having the 360 running all the time doesn't sound like a smart thing as this point in time.

 

[Arwin]

Ha, i don't have any faith in my 360 to last a few years running games, no way i would take part in this if it came to the 360. Having the 360 running all the time doesn't sound like a smart thing as this point in time.

On the contrary, it sounds like essential stuff. At least this way you can find out the quality of your 360 before the warranty runs out.

 

[Dave Baumann]

MEMEXPORT will actually enable more of the potential power of the graphics chip to go into the results as opposed to some duplication of work that is done on the PC versions.

 

[rekator]

MEMEXPORT will actually enable more of the potential power of the graphics chip to go into the results as opposed to some duplication of work that is done on the PC versions.

And the folding 360 client may be based on both CPU and GPU folding?

 

[Gradthrawn]

Somebody at SCE missed something...

If I idle in the PSN Store for too long, and then exit, the XMB will automatically scroll to F@H and launch the client. It does so far too quickly for me to intervene. Its happened to me several times. The first few times, I figured I just slipped up and accidentally pressed down and X right as the XMB was coming up. The idle counter seems to keep going while in the PSN Store. I'm not sure if it starts after your session expires, or immediately following no activity.

 

[Synergy34]

On the contrary, it sounds like essential stuff. At least this way you can find out the quality of your 360 before the warranty runs out.

I have instore warranty so I have a good year and a half left on it. Once the new units pop up with the smaller chips, i'll make the switch.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Maybe it's just me, but it bugs me when I think that people swap in perfectly working consoles with a store warranty just to get the latest hardware revision that comes out.

Is that encouraged in the store warranty policy?

 

[dobwal]

Maybe it's just me, but it bugs me when I think that people swap in perfectly working consoles with a store warranty just to get the latest hardware revision that comes out.

Is that encouraged in the store warranty policy?

No, but it will encourage the store to raise the price of the instore warranty if it proves to be unprofitable.

 

[patsu]

Hmm... Folding@Home v1.1 still pause if the monitor is off when it loads. Because of this, my F@H never run as a screen saver. I had to start it up explicitly, wait for the app to load successfully, then turn off my monitor.