Considering many places use the ps3 for non-gaming uses, it sort of makes sense. However, combining the two for a stupidly high price... Places will continue to just buy vanilla ps3 to use..
The spec increase over the standard PS3 does seem quite impressive. I'd like to see a video of that rack of Zegos running the rendering software. On a side note, the US Military are purchasing 2200 new PS3 slims to build a 'research supercomputer' according to this article. This bring up two points: Why aren't they using Zegos? And the US Air Force have PS3 slimlines that run Linux!
ZEGOs are expensive because of their built-in video processing abilities. The military, on the other hand, are making a cluster of PS3s in order to use them for distributed processing, sort of like Folding but locally. The heart of both systems consists of the CELL, with ZEGO offering more memory on the XDR side of things. Since the airforce needs to do simulations, they obviously don't need the extra video memory and the rest to achieve their results. Linux clusters are inexpensive and used in large volumes, even for movie rendering. Supercomputers have a smaller piece of the pie, and professional equipment like the ZEGO is aimed at a market who are used to custom machines and simple interfaces - clustering PS3s wouldn't be their thing. It's the difference between mainframes and supercomputers. They're both out of your budget but they aim at different goals. PSops, guess we all skipped this bit: happy hunting! White Paper: http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/ext/ZEGO/files/BCU-100_Whitepaper.pdf
I just started recently learning the cell. God this thing is a beast & complex. *head still spinning*. Small question, I thought ps3 slims remove OtherOS. So how would they be hitting them up with linux? (unless maybe special order/made from sony?).
Doubtful, since Sony did not want to recode the hypervisor to support Other OS function for the hardware changes in the slim. The report is probably wrong about the Navy using slims is my guess.
Spot on. The Slim hardware can run Linux, but the hypervisor in the system won't allow it. Either Sony made a one-off BIOS build with a custom hypervisor for the AF or the AF isn't using Slims. -hl718
Reminds me of the rumor prior to the release of the PS2 that customs would only allow small batches of the console out of Japan on special customs paperwork in an attempt to ensure that the "super consoles" were not used to produce missile guidance systems! Or did I just make that up?
What exactly do you mean by "atleast you didn't make that up?" - are you suggesting my posts here are spurious, made up, non-facts? lol I resent the implications and demand a duel @ dawn ;-) *Edit, yep, that's the story and exactly as I remembered it (almost). I do remember thinking at the time of the ZX80 chip claim regarding ICBMs (Inter Continental Bollocks Marketing) ploy.
