Playstation 3 Users Help Folding@Home Set Guinness World Record
A little time spent folding together can go a long way
The Playsation 3 is not only an advanced gaming console, but its computing power, multiplied by an estimated 670,000 users, has helped propel Stanford University’s “Folding@Home Network” into the Guinness World Record Book as the most powerful distributed computing network.
While the project receives assistance from other clients as well, the March 22nd release of the PS3 client created an enormous spike in total compute power. As of July 2007 the PS3 clients average computations per day make up 18.1%, second only to the GPU client.
Vijay Pande, Folding@home Project Lead and Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University stated…
“None of this would be even remotely possible without the power of the PS3,” he says. “It has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds.”
The goal of the Folding@home Project is to analyze and gain a better understanding for protein folding and misfolding, thereby finding cures for related diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and cystic fibrosis.
So the next time you get ready to exit a multiplayer game or finish laying the smack down on that final boss, think about helping a great cause before you power down your PS3.
