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Sony Playstation for Cancer and Alzheimer

A new use for the Sony Playstation was found by researchers at Stanford University: illnesses like cancer, Alzheimer`s Disease and others. The plan is to use the cell processor power of Playstation3 to make calculations for the Folding@Home project, which simulates protein behavior to give scientists clues about the disease process. The molecular simulation project allows researchers to study Alzheimer`s Disease, Huntington`s Disease and some cancers.

Folding@Home client for the PS3 was demonstrated by Sonywas in Germany last week. Researchers described the development as a major advance in capabilities that were once possible only with supercomputers. While the cell microprocessor helps perform calculations to simulate protein folding, the graphic chip of the Playstation 3 system will show the protein folding process in real-time, using new image technologies, according to researchers.

The project team wrote on their website: "With this new technology, as well as new advances with GPUs, we will likely be able to attain performance on the 100 gigaflop scale per computer. With about 10,000 such machines, we would be able to achieve performance on the petaflop scale."