PS3 and Folding@home in Guiness World Records
The Stanford Folding@home distributed computer network has been recognized as the most power by Guiness World Records with help from the collective efforts of PlayStation 3 owners worldwide.
The record was initially set on September 16, 2007 as Folding@home surpassed one petaflop, a computing milestone that has never been reached before by a distributed computing network. In addition to this, the collective efforts of PS3 users have enabled PS3 alone to reach the petaflops mark on September 23, 2007.
There have been 670,000 unique PlayStation 3 owners that have registered to the Folding@home network to help study protein folding and its link to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and certain forms of cancer.
“To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful,” said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. “Without them we would not be able to make the advancements we have made in our studies of several different diseases. But it is clear that none of this would be even more remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds.”
“To have PS3 play such a large role in allowing Folding@home to be honored by Guinness World Records is truly incredible,” said Masayuki Chatani, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Technology Platform, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “This record is clear evidence of the power of PS3 and the contributions that it is making to the Folding@home network, and more importantly, scientific research.”
The PS3 uses powerful Cell Broadband Engine technology which has help increase the computing power of the Folding@home project dramatically. Until the PS3 joined the project, personal computers were producing about one-quarter of a petaflop. The PS3 joined the project on March 15, 2007, and the Folding@home program was quickly downloaded to contribute to over a petaflop of computing power.
November 1, 2007 at 4:04 pm | Hardware, Playstation, Software |
