Anyone Own A PS3?

[profdlp]

We need a guinea pig to test the Folding prowess of a PS3. If you own one and would like to help us research its potential as a FAH rig, we would be very grateful. There are reports on the web that production might be as much as 30 times the capacity of the average computer, so this could be a really big deal.

I won't say too much just yet, (though it shouldn't be too awfully difficult to read between the lines and figure it out), but the SMx Committee is working on a little project right now. Some hard data would help us immensely. ;)

[Sledgehammer70]

Prof I will see if my roomate will let me use his system to test on for a day or 2 once the client rolls out... He moves out in Mid April so lets hope it comes before than... As you already know I sold my system to pay for Baby items :(

[csimon]

need background downloading?
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6550

[profdlp]

For anyone who stumbled across this thread because they saw PS3 in the title and wonder what Folding (http://www.joinfolding.com) is, here's a nifty short video (http://geek.videosift.com/video/PS3-Foldinghome) which you might find interesting. :)

Veteran Folders might enjoy the segment featuring Vijay Pande. :thumbsup:

[airbornflght]

this will be sweet if the output is really that good. not to mention I'm 18 now:D So maybe the honor will be finally bestowed upon me to host an SmX.

[Sledgehammer70]

It looks as if Thursday is the day for the F@H Download option...

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/03/20/sony_ps3_update_firmware/

[csimon]

this will be sweet if the output is really that good. not to mention I'm 18 now:D So maybe the honor will be finally bestowed upon me to host an SmX.Good luck ...although I think SMX hosts are limited by the age of the ppl they date. :nudge: Sorry I couldn't pass it up.
Keep being persistent airborn your time is coming! :bigggrin:

[Gargoyle]

Tell ya what, I can send Airborn SM11, and I'll take a PS3 :D

It's a fair trade! Did I mention it's water-cooled and glowy (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37648)? Oh, but I used a vodka bottle as the reservoir. He's not old enough for that... ;)

[profdlp]

...maybe the honor will be finally bestowed upon me to host an SmX.
You are well on the way. :thumbsup:

[airbornflght]

Tell ya what, I can send Airborn SM11, and I'll take a PS3 :D

It's a fair trade! Did I mention it's water-cooled and glowy (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37648)? Oh, but I used a vodka bottle as the reservoir. He's not old enough for that... ;)

Nah, I wouldn't want to take such a piece of folding heritage from you garg. :bigggrin:

[GHoosdum]

I think speculation at this point, while healthy, might be a bit premature. The Committee's planning is still in preliminary stages. Testing will be the key to any possible success... so by all means, let's hear from a PS3 owner! ;)

[profdlp]

...while healthy, might be a bit premature...
That's what she said! :p

...The Committee's planning is still in preliminary stages. Testing will be the key to any possible success... so by all means, let's hear from a PS3 owner! ;)
Yes, please. We need some hard facts to make this happen.

We need some hard facts to make this happen.
That's what she said! :p

(Thought I'd save you the trouble... :vimp: )

[QCH]

We are only asking for some help with testing... don't read into it too much.

As Prof and Ghoosdum indicated.... we're not ANYWHERE close to switching to PS3. We need weeks and weeks of testing and deliberating in order to see if it is worth changing SMx direction.

[Leonardo]

Oh yeah, we need an Ipod too. They fold really well, so it is said....

if you drive over them with an F250 Ford. :D


Seriously, we are seeking a PS3 owner to test out his machine. There should be no risk to the hardware.

[SPIKE09]

Better find a donor soon, acording to some at the FCF and [H] central it is working already, you need to download the latest firmware though and be sure to change teams as it defaults to PS3.

[Sledgehammer70]

I got the okay and will have the PS3 folding as soon as I get the firmware update :) I will name the system SM93PS3 so everyone can track its stats :) Once it is online I will make a post about it with images :) Along with that I plan to have her folding for 1 to 2 weeks straight with no gaming...

[Annon]

I'm running folding on my PS3 right now. I'm not sure if these stats are equal to the PC or not, but here they are:

0.0811 Seconds per frame
About 9 hours to complete a 400000 frame work unit.
I've had it running for about 30 minutes and completed about 25,000 frames.

My name is set to Annon, and team is 93, so you guys should be able to check my stats.

[Buddy J]

Sweet! Your stats are here:
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=141845

[airbornflght]

I'm running folding on my PS3 right now. I'm not sure if these stats are equal to the PC or not, but here they are:

0.0811 Seconds per frame
About 9 hours to complete a 400000 frame work unit.
I've had it running for about 30 minutes and completed about 25,000 frames.

My name is set to Annon, and team is 93, so you guys should be able to check my stats.

With those stats you should be able to do 2.5 work units a day. Lets just see what kind of points they are worth.:bigggrin:

[mas0n]

So does it make me more or less of a geek to want to buy a PS3 and not game on it?

[SPIKE09]

26 wu's for less than 1 point methinks the ps3 client may be buggy as hell:mad:

[Gargoyle]

I don't know how he got 26 wu's for no points, but it wasn't recently. Those wu's aren't shown in the last 7 months.

[SPIKE09]

Ah very old EUE's then so the PS3 ain't to blame good good.

[profdlp]

Yeah, they're from August of 2005.


Donator Annon
Team Team Short-Media (93)
Score 0 (certificate)
Donator Rank 613983 of 613983
WU 26 (certificate)
Date of last work unit 2005-08-21 18:20:02

Welcome (back?) to Team 93, Annon. :cheers:

[airbornflght]

Well, if you are going for ppd, then the ps3 is looking good, but thats what we are aiming to find out. Is whats more economical. because if the thing costs $600 and does 1000 ppd, then I don't know of anything else that is going to come close for the money.

[Leonardo]

if the thing costs $600 and does 1000 ppd, then I don't know of anything else that is going to come close for the moneyNothing in Team 93's parts bin, that's for sure. But then, a barebones C2D system can do 1000PPD without too much difficulty on Windows SMP.

[Gargoyle]

Another question is what the points will stabilize out to. SMP points will probably change when it comes out of beta, and we don't know much about the PS3, yet.

[Leonardo]

Good point. I would imagine SMP Windows won't be as lucrative once it's mainstream.

[csimon]

So does it make me more or less of a geek to want to buy a PS3 and not game on it?

Sort of ...well, yeah. LOL :fold:
A folder nontheless! :csimon:

[Annon]

Looks like I got 287 points for this WU.

With it taking 9 hours per WU, that comes out to about 765 points per day.

[Gargoyle]

Looks like I got 287 points for this WU.

With it taking 9 hours per WU, that comes out to about 765 points per day.

Interesting. That's a little more ppd than I'm getting out of my Opteron on the SMP beta client (I'm getting roughly 700).

Thanks for the info, Annon!

[Sledgehammer70]

SM93PS3 <s>should be</s> has just post its first WU <s>anytime now...</s>

[profdlp]

Good going, guys. Let's keep those stats rolling in. :cheers:

[QCH]

SWEET!!!

[Oriane]

I think you may be verifying this number:


It seems that the PS3 is more than 10X powerful as an average PC. Why doesn't it get 10X PPD as well?

We balance the points based on both speed and the flexibility of the client. The GPU client is still the fastest, but it is the least flexible and can only run a very, very limited set of WU's. Thus, its points are not linearly proportional to the speed increase. 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). We have picked the PS3 as the natural benchmark machine for PS3 calculations and set its points per day to 900 to reflect this middle ground between speed (faster than CPU, but slower than GPU) and flexibility (more flexible than GPU, less than CPU).


Linky (http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-PS3.html)

You would have to read the whole article to get an understanding but, honestly, I find this disappointing.

The bottom line is that WUs are being tailored to your CPU’s capability and mission. That of the PS3 (for now) is as follows:

The PS3 right now runs what are called implicit solvation calculations, including some simple ones (sigmodal dependent dielectric) and some more sophisticated ones (AGBNP, a type of Generalized Born method from Prof. Ron Levy's group at Rutgers). In this respect, the PS3 client is much like our GPU client. However, the PS3 client is more flexible, in that it can also run explicit solvent calculations as well, although not at the same speed increase relative to PC's. We are working to increase the speed of explicit solvent on the PS3 and would then run these calculations on the PS3 as well. 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).

Until more variety and missions become available to the PS3, this seems to be a pretty rigid structure.

So don’t trade in your more versatile Opterons and C2Ds- there are points for those willing to chance beta clients and WUs- or happen to land WUs that fit their cache. Point-wise, you may be able to best the PS3.

[Sledgehammer70]

So don’t trade in your more versatile Opterons and C2Ds- there are points for those willing to chance beta clients and WUs- or happen to land WUs that fit their cache. Point-wise, you may be able to best the PS3.

But at what price? to put a sweet C2D rig or even a Dual Opty rig together would cost almost double a PS3 :(

[Leonardo]

The same was said about GPUs - the world would be saved due to the sheer processing power. It didn't pan out. Theoretical power and practical applications are often not the same. GPUs, PS3 - whatever the promise of the day - it's nothing new. Every year tech news if full of the next "revolution" that turns out to be merely an improvement, or an evolution.

I have no doubt that Stanford will provide whatever incentives are necessary to get the biggest return on investment for the advancement of Folding@Home. I can't explain the technical merits of cell processor, versus GPU, versus dual core, AMD architecture versus Intel's (math vs FSB vs memory bandwidth....ad infinitum). Simply put, Stanford will utilize whatever's available the best practical, usable research.

[primesuspect]

To be fair, the GPU client isn't even out yet.

[Oriane]

Yes, it is an improvement and yes, it is still better fold-for-the-dollar than most any other path I can think of.

I think the upsides are evident:

The PS3 has made an undeniable impact on the project. A 2-to-1+ jump in folding capability in the space of a weekend in folding. This system has single-handedly changed the folding landscape and has pole-vaulted the ability to find a cure. If for no other reason, PS3 folding was a coup in DCP strategy..

FAH reports that to fold 24/7, the power draw has been measured at 200W- and that is equal to or better than many PCs. So the power burden is the same, and if you don’t do anything special with your PC client, your point harvest will be significantly improved. Couple that with the fact that IBM is now producing 65nm Cell processors (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20070314/bs_nf/50747), the PS3 may be more efficient still- fairly soon.

For what it is worth, I think SM going with the PS3 as a folding rig is a worthy proposition, given the facts. It is, for now, still probably the best investment for your dollar- it’s just not as good on a per-unit basis as I thought and hoped it would be.

I can live with that :) .

[Sledgehammer70]

I'll agree with that, and also mention to build a system able to harness a GPU and the overall cost of a GPU is still much more than a standard PS3 :)

To Note SM93PS3 is down currently and has been for the last 24 hours :( hopefully it will be folding away later today :)

[Leonardo]

I'll agree with that, and also mention to build a system able to harness a GPU and the overall cost of a GPU is still much more than a standard PS3Good point. I'm just hoping that in six months when Intel and AMD both have quad core CPUs in general circulation, Core2Duos will be cheap on the pre-owned market. That might end up being the best bang for the bug for privateers on a budget and for Team 93. Don't get me wrong, fellows, I have not dismissed PS3 as a possible SMx vehicle.

[GHoosdum]

I'm personally rather disappointed at Stanford's decision to reindex the points based upon what system is producing them.

[edcentric]

There is a lot going on in the program these days. If you look at the changes in the last year or so, just the proliferation of multi-core and GPU folding.

One thing that I see is that the size of the projects has gotten huge. I understand this from the scientific modeling point of view, but wow.
My X1950 pro is running 4-6 days per WU.
My E6300 running SMP is taking 30-40 hours per WU.

The points are just a signal from F@H as to what they find important. It might be time for them to say, WU type "X" is most important to us now, and since it runs best on some machines it will only be assigned to them.

[Sledgehammer70]

Yeah standard PC WU's take 1 to 2 days for me, I have no idea about GPU's but the PS3 is pushing almost 3 WU's per day

[Krazeyivan]

My PS3 seems to have stopped looking at my points, will check it out tonight - it might have stopped folding to push the latest update patch my way. I have only logged onto it twice! Its been folding since I got it tucked away in the corner of the room!

[Qeldroma]

Wow- this one has me a little curious-

Sledge- Did your PS3 fold 24/7 or did you take liberties and play on it when you did your sample? No criticism here- as a matter of fact- playing some on it would probably be more real for me.

Krazey- Sounds like you have done 24/7- do you have an idea of how much your you did a week?

Also, I've noticed that this team took off with the FAH release on the PS3 March 23rd- WOW!

http://short-media.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23071&stc=1&d=1177456204

This thing made a BIG difference with them- I think they had it planned out.

At any rate, my son is talking about the PS3 and is waiting for it to drop in price some- so I'm pretty curious.

[Krazeyivan]

Most of the PS3 workunits give between 250 - 500 points I think - I was doing around the 1000 ppd - from the PS3.

My PS3 will be coming online again this evening - I've been playing with it trying to get the wireless working - no joy.