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Researchers utilize Xbox 360 chipsDela @ Sep 15, 2009 05:18 | 8 comments
The PlayStation 3's technology has also been used by researchers to build powerful number-crunching clusters for relatively low costs. Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher on the team, a researcher on the Warwick team, previously worked as a software engineer a Microsoft's Rare studio, which enabled him to tap into the power of GPU technology.
"You don't quite get the full whammy of a cluster, but its close," he said. "Instead of pumping out stunning graphics, it's reworked; in the case of my research, rather than calculating the position of a structure and texture it's now working out the different chemical levels in a cell."
He believes it is the first time that such a project has been carried out with chips from the Xbox 360. He believes that it is entirely possible to link many Xbox's together, in a similar way that has been done with the PS3. "It could be done, but you would have to go over the internet - through something like Xbox live - rather than a standard method," he said.
Sony has been doing this online for some time now, with the Folding@Home software coming as standard. |
Academics at the University of Warwick have taken advantage of the Xbox 360 GPU chip's parallel processing abilities to crunch data as part of scientific study. The Warwick team harnessed a single Xbox 360 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) to model how electrical signals in the heart moved around damaged cardiac cells. It is an example of how technology being used for gaming can also be used to perform functions vital to modern research at a fraction of the cost.
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Comment by: KillerBug (Sep 15, 2009 07:23) So the only reason that they used the xbox360 is because one of the engineers used to work for Microsoft? And even with the knowledge he gained there, he still can't figure out basic networking? And the cluster he was using was so slow that a single XboX360 processor (basicly a two-gen-old tripple-core xeon) is almost as fast?
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Comment by: tjohns (Sep 15, 2009 08:20) The article states "GPU" ... they're using the multi-pipelined parallel graphics chip to do the crunching, not the CPU |
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Comment by: plazma247 (Sep 15, 2009 14:32) To me the story should read, used ATI GRAPHICS CHIP TO. |
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Comment by: Dela (Sep 15, 2009 16:19) Originally posted by tjohns: It doesn't mention the CPU.
Originally posted by plazma247: Where? I don't really get your point. |
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Comment by: Dela (Sep 15, 2009 16:27) Originally posted by plazma247: I guess, looking again, that your point is about Xenos, but I still don't see why I should have totally left out that it is used with Xbox 360 and that it was used instead for research calculations... Why would I re-write what the University of Warwick actually says it is using? |
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Comment by: ZippyDSM (Sep 16, 2009 01:21) is this not the same as using liquid nitrogen to make a 486 CPU run ten times faster? |
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Comment by: KillerBug (Sep 16, 2009 03:50) Hmm...mis-read it...
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Comment by: biver (Sep 16, 2009 17:09) You are all missing the big picture here...
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