WEBVTT - Why is the U.S. military buying PS3? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.799 text stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi there, everybody, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:19.880 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:21.680 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.720 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.400 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, guys, we're having 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:34.880 a bit of an identity crisis today. Who is Yeah, so, um, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.480 we are going to talk about some some very strange 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.360 combinations of things actually, uh one that you might not 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:47.159 expect gaming and super computing, super super computing. Yeah. This 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:53.440 actually comes a courtesy of a little listener text message Liz, 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.480 queue something up, will you? This text message comes from 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.320 Tim who says, what's up with the U. S. Army 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:07.840 buying p S three's for a parallel supercomputer cloud system? Question? Mark? Well, Tim, 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:09.520 first of all, it's not the U. S. Army, it's 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.119 the US Air Force. And it wasn't twenty two hundred 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:16.080 p S three's It was actually twenty five hundred. But uh, yeah, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.760 we get the point of the question here, which is 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.480 what is up with buying p S three's and how 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.160 does that make a supercomputer? It all boils down to 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:31.600 the PlayStation three's processor, which is a cell processor. Yes, 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.960 this is a custom chip. UM actually spent quite a 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.839 lot of money in in development and it was under 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.720 development by a joint venture of three companies. In addition 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.240 to Sony, IBM and Toshiba were both involved with this 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.400 with this chips manufacturer. And uh, it's a pretty interesting device. 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.040 It's what gives the p S three it's mph and uh, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.600 you know, allows it to do what it can do. 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.400 It can crunch lots and lots of numbers, right, and 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.480 so let's uh, let's just do a quick overview of 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.160 what a processor does and then we talk about why 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.320 the the cell processor is slightly different. So, in general, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:14.000 a processor's job is to take a uh information, So 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.520 it's taking data and executing any sort of function upon 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.320 that data to get a result. So there are two 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.440 different lines of data going into a processor at any 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.040 one time. There's the source information and then there are 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.200 there the the the functions, the various code that comes 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.320 in and says, all right, add these numbers together, or 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.520 divide this number, or find the uh the largest two 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.240 prime integers of this number. Um. And so that's what 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.119 a processor does, is it It It executes the command 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.440 upon the data and then gives the result. Uh. So 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.920 that's the basic function of a processor. Now the cell 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.560 processor is a little different. It's it's kind of a 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.760 specialized processor and uh it has a cup of different 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.080 elements to it that allow it to behave in a 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.919 slightly different way. Um. In a way, it actually kind 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.680 of acts like multiple computers working together on a single problem. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.200 It's just it's all been consolidated onto a single processor chip. Now, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.000 this processor chip has a power processor element or p 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.080 p E. The power processor elements job is kind of 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.120 like a manager at uh in a in an office, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.680 all right. The manager's job is they take in an 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.800 assignment and then they give that they delegate that assignment 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.280 to an employee complete all right, and then uh that 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:42.520 employee would be represented by a synergistic processor element or SPE. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.880 Now the PS three cell processors have a one PPE 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:52.800 and seven SPEs. So the PPE takes the problem, divides 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.960 it up into individual tasks, and gives each task to 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.680 an SPE. Each SPE is able to work as its 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:04.040 own processor, with all of them working together in concert. 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:08.120 You have a very powerful chip because they are all. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.680 That means all seven of these can work towards solving 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:15.360 each individual problem, which ultimately will solve a much larger problem. 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.320 Uh in in a fraction of the time of what 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:24.640 would take a similarly powerful single core processor. Okay, So 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.320 the other way that the analogy I used I use 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.680 this on an episode of Tech Stuff Live not too 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.320 long ago. But imagine that you have two rooms. Inside 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.360 one room, you've got a mathematician genius, someone who can 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.599 take a math problem and solve it. Uh It doesn't 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.479 matter how complex you make it. Eventually, sooner or later, 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.400 this genius will figure it out. In a second room, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.320 you have a room full of smart people who are 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.840 good at math. But they are not mathematicians. They are 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.880 not geniuses. They're just they're diligent and they work hard 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:58.680 and they can get the right answer. It just usually 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.480 takes them a little bit longer than it would the 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.600 genius in the other room. Now, let's say you've got 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.679 a math problem. The math problem is a really really 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.680 long problem that can be broken down into several steps, 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.440 And you give the math problem to the genius, and 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.200 you give the math problem to the room full of 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.960 smart people. The smart people can break that problem up 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.400 into lots of smaller problems, and each person is working 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.040 on a section of it, and then ultimately they can 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.000 put all their answers together and solve it faster than 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:33.080 the genius can. However, if you have a big problem 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.520 that cannot be broken down, the genius is going to 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.400 be able to work through that problem faster because no 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.159 matter how you, how how much the smart people in 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.279 the other room look at it, they can't break that 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.440 problem into smaller pieces to solve each on their own. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:49.200 So they just have to work on it and get 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.680 through the problem. That they're not gonna be any faster 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.840 than the other guy in the other room. So that's 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.560 that's kind of a comparison of a cell processor versus 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:04.679 a very powerful, uh regular microprocessor. Uh. It all depends 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.160 on the kind of information you feed into it. If 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.240 it's the kind of information that can be broken down 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.680 into smaller problems, you're set. You're going to be able 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.039 to solve that in in no time flat, relatively speaking, 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.520 because you can do something that's called parallel processing. All 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:26.680 the processors are working in parallel. Awesome. Wow, I'm I'm 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.560 already wiped out. We haven't even gotten to the part 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.560 about the US Air Force. Now, the Air Force is 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.600 not actually they're not. It's not the first organization to 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.320 use PS three's as a supercomputer. Yeah. As a matter 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:42.160 of fact, um Sony was trying to illustrate this as 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.560 far back as two thousand six. Um they have been 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.839 uh promoting the idea that the cell processor is capable 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:54.840 of handling advanced computing UM basically as an if you will, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.320 as sort of a marketing effort, although sort of an 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.560 unusual one by you know, I guess most aiming console standards, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.760 but it's it's basically a marketing effort to show, look, 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.719 this is this processor is so advanced it can handle 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.120 serious computing stuff, not just handle your games. It's not 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.360 just a Blu ray player. It really is a super 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.840 heavy duty monster of a chip. And um, they actually 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.600 have been very uh cooperative with people who are are 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.120 trying to build them into and network them together to 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:31.640 make a super computer as um as certain uh researcher 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.840 did up in the Northeastern United States. Are you familiar 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.640 with this person? This is the astrophysicist Dr Garov Kana. Yes. 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:43.680 Dr Kanna, who who networked eight PlayStation three's together originally 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.720 in order to solve problems relating to gravitational fields and 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.840 things of that nature. Yeah, he called it his gravity 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:54.000 grid according to the research that I used. UM. And basically, 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.960 what he wanted to do was to find out, uh, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:02.000 what would happen if a supermassive black ol swallows a star, 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.080 And so he wanted he really needed massive amounts of 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.040 computing ability to do that, and he had been spending 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.480 money that he he was receiving as grants from the 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:15.440 National Science Foundation UM to distribute his project out to supercomputers, 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.080 but that was costing about five thousand dollars a pop. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.800 And UM, he realized that he could do this more 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.400 affordably with the processors inside a PlayStation three if he 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.680 networked them together and also installed Lennox. That's an important 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:34.480 element of this is that they Sony actually allows people 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.400 to install and an open source operating system onto the 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.040 p S three if they want to. It's it's actually allowed. Um, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.960 there's no barrier in place, which I gotta say is 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.920 really weird for Sony. I mean, Sony is not known 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.240 for being the most open platform kind of company, but um, yeah, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.880 by installing lenox and creating a cluster of these PS three's. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.800 You have this very power full processing machine. What that 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.760 that is? Uh, that's one illustration of how behind this 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.599 project Sony is. But I haven't a more even uh 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.839 vivid thing because see Dr Kano figured it would take 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.160 about to buy the PlayStation three and this was you know, 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.080 a couple of years ago. They were still more they 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.480 were more expensive than since then. Um, but he was 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.599 able to talk Sony. He explained to Sony what he 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.160 wanted to do, and Sony Sony donated the eight machines 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.120 that he needed to create his gravity grid. So they 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:38.080 were absolutely saying yeah and are absolutely so, um, you 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.160 know they were. They were totally behind it, and it 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.280 made some noise at the time, which was good because 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.400 at the time Sony was having some difficulties selling them 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.680 because they were very expensive. And so when you know, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.400 I was talking earlier about the the one PPE handing 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.880 out the the the individual jobs to the sp s. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:00.240 The same thing can be said. If you Clu suster 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.640 these these devices together, you just you become you create 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.080 an even larger group. So it's like a group of 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.280 managers and a group of employees and so uh, you 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:15.080 effectively increase the processing ability of this these machines, you know, 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:20.120 by however many you managed to network together, and you 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.600 can network lots of these together. You don't. It doesn't 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.960 have to just be eight. That was the size of 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.240 the cluster that um Dr Khanna decided to to go with. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.160 But uh, and it admit the processing needs that you 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.080 had at the time. The US Air Force is doing 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.000 a similar project. You know, we were talking abouts threes. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.840 It's actually closer to undred. They already had over three 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:48.800 hundred uh already set aside for supercomputing. But it's the 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.280 same sort of concept is linking these together. You install 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.360 Linux on them, you create clusters, and using these clusters 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:01.960 you can solve really complex problems and and and parallel problems. Again, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.959 once again we have to differentiate. Um has to be 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.640 a complex parallel problem for these clusters to actually be effective. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.400 This is very similar in a way to what quantum 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.280 computing promises us. You may remember we talked about quantum 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.000 computing in a previous podcast. Actually we may have talked 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.079 about a couple of times. But quantum computers use cubits 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.160 rather than just regular bits, and a cubit can be 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.079 a zero or a one, or theoretically anything in between 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.800 at the same time, so you are able to do 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.800 multiple You're able to execute multiple processes all at once 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:40.640 because these cubits are fulfilling all possibilities at the same time. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.520 The difference between quantum computers and networking a bunch of 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.240 p S three's together is the results from a quantum 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:51.600 computer are going to be generated in probabilities, so you 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:56.400 get you'll get maybe a range of potential answers with 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:00.200 a percentage of how likely each one is correct, so 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.960 you'll never be certain that the answer that has the 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.720 highest percentage, you know, the highest probability of being correct, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.480 is in fact the really correct one, which is kind 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:15.959 of weird, but that's quantum for you. Yeah, probably, yeah. Um. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.319 You know it's funny too because, just as an aside, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:22.640 every time somebody says cubits, I think of the the 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.079 length measurements, not which is cub i T you're thinking 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.120 about building an arc, Well, yeah, everybody thinks of the arc, 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.760 probably because of the Bill Cosby bit. What the hell 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:37.440 is a cubit? Yeah, but now these are q bits, Yeah, 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.920 which is an entirely different. Animals say a distant cousin 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:47.360 to q Bert. Right. UM. That amazes me. That's why 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.160 I bring up Cubert as often as possible. The Air 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.079 Force is actually going to be using this cluster to 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.960 test a way of processing multiple radar images. Basically, they 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.920 want to build them into fire resolution versions of those 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:07.960 images UM, and other projects including high definition video processing. UM. 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.920 You know, pretty heavy stuff. UM. But you know it 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.199 requires that much processing power and it actually apparently is 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.960 going to be handled at the Air Force Reach Research 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:23.199 Laboratories Information Center in Rome, New York. So. UM, it's 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.520 a very very specialized unit. It sounds like from the 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.520 from the descriptions I've read, UM. But what's really interesting 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.080 is you can do this yourself if you are. I 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.800 was wondering if we were going to go into the 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.360 how too, because this is this gets kind of complicated. No, 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:40.120 I wasn't going to go in depth into the how to, 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.640 but I was going to point out that uh Dr 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:48.760 Khanna and another UM, the U Mass Dartmouth Principal investigator H. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.079 Chris Poulin, have a guide available to It's free, it's 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.120 open source. All you need to do is go to 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.360 PS three cluster dot org and you can find out 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.760 how to build your on PlayStation three uh cluster computer, 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.480 and they even tell you how you can still play 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.800 games on it, although it does require a special boot 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.839 system in order to boot back into the regular proprietary 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.800 PS three operating system, which is very very cool. Yeah, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.120 so in general, I can run through like the high 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.760 level steps because we can't really get into the details. 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.400 It's really really complicated. Well, yeah, I'm not sure that 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.600 anybody is going to take the podcast and yeah, but 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.560 just just so you kind of get an idea of 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.360 what goes into this is that you you have to 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.320 be able to uh get a particular they they recommend 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.440 a specific Linux distribution that you then uh you uh 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.720 image onto a DVD and you use that as a 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.920 part of what you're going to do for the the 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.000 operating system for the Sony PS three. You also have 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.720 to have a USB memory stick to get a special 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.440 boot command on that um uh you put the image 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.200 of that on there. They actually host that file on 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:03.400 the site itself, and you using these together, you can 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:08.280 go into a Sony PlayStation three menu and there's actually 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.480 a choice to um switch the operating system to other 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.440 So you I mean, it's built in you can change 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.400 it that way. I mean that shows you that Sony 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.320 was thinking ahead and was being very accommodating to this 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.040 kind of hacking. Um, and we're using hacking in the uh, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.840 not not in the malicious sense, but in the hey, 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.240 let's make this thing that does this particular task do 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.480 something totally unrelated, which is really cool. Let's take it 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.880 apart and see what else we can make it. So 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.920 you has they have steps for installing Linux onto the machine, 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.800 which is actually it's a multi step process, um and 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.480 it it might be a little intimidating, but if you 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.320 actually follow the instructions that are on the website, they're 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.560 very comprehensive and they you know you don't. It's one 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.840 of those things where it's better if you do know everything, 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.280 like the reasons why you are are going through these steps, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.320 but it's not necessary because they tell you what to 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.040 do anyway, so you could just blindly follow the steps 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:08.960 and as long as you do that, you should be 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.520 all right. And uh. After you've installed Lenox, it's time 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:17.080 to create something called the message passing interface, which is 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.560 that's the way that it it processes information and networks information. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.200 And you also have to get the uh software Developer Kit, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.320 so that you can actually make it do whatever it 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:31.480 is that you plan on having it do, whether that's 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.800 search for intelligent life or plot thermonuclear war. I mean, 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.520 it's really up to you basically at that point, it's 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.560 just a tool. It's not that you know, it's not 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.880 gonna run your games better, let me put it that way. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.520 You're not gonna suddenly see and improve performance from your 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.400 p S three as far as gaming is concerned. But 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.800 you can use it as a very powerful computer. And 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.440 if you have a particular project that requires parallel processing 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.280 and that's a lot of ps. Yeah, that thing we've 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.120 got a pop filed are here. Um. But if you 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.280 if you happen to have that that need, this could 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.760 be a resource for you, especially now that the prices dropped. Um. 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.840 And it's that's it's kind of interesting too that it's 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:15.040 gained so much traction as an idea to use the 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.720 PlayStation three as a model for the or and I 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.920 guess a unit to be built into a cluster UM. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.080 The Cluster Workshop project, the one that we're just talking about, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.639 is as now partially funded by the National Science Foundation. UM. 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:32.760 So it's you know, it's received that level of support 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.359 in the scientific community. So um, and from what I 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:37.879 could tell, it looks like a lot of people have 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.800 adopted the idea. Um, it's just one of those things 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.120 where when the military goes out and buys a whole 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.920 lot of game consoles and networked into a cluster computer. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.800 It's it's it makes headlines because it's an interesting story. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.520 Well yeah, and when you think about it, having to 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.919 submit that budget request up the chain of command to 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.439 the point where you know ultimately it's going to go 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.400 to some sort of politicians, it can be a challenge 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.840 to explain to someone not it's not not I don't 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.719 want to use the word savvy, but not particularly informed 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.000 about the possibility of of networking these devices together in 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.719 order to make an actual computer. Uh. You know, on 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.359 the surface, you just say, why the heck do you 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:25.120 want video game consoles? Uh? So, I mean that would 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:26.800 definitely be a challenge. I would not want to be 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.840 the guy who has to explain, especially if if I 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.439 were in a chain of command situation, I might not 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.120 even understand it. You know, it might be like three 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.800 people below me have have that information and then I'm 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.720 kind of stuck. But that is It is a nice 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.520 interesting way to solve the problem because supercomputers are not 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:52.560 just expensive. I mean, not all research facilities purchase supercomputers. 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:57.160 In fact, most don't. Most end up essentially, um not 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.720 not renting time, but getting having to I'm granted to 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.840 them to use a supercomputer, either through grant money or 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:10.680 sometimes the supercomputer, uh resource has a quota to meet 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.320 of a certain number of hours of processing time they 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:18.320 have to dedicate to research projects. But you've got you've 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.960 got more projects, and you have supercomputers, so you know 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.720 that time becomes a precious commodity. And if you if 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:26.880 you aren't able to book that time when your research 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.879 project is active, then it could be really hard to 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.439 keep that project going long enough for you to be 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.399 able to get the access. So this is a really 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:39.240 it's a viable alternative. Yeah. Yeah, And another nice thing 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.200 too is that, you know, it's one of the things 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.320 that keeps Google's data centers running. Mean, they use thousands 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.040 and thousands of computers as servers. You know, if one 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.640 of them goes down, there's some redundancy. So I would 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:52.800 assume although I you know, it's just one of those 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:54.240 things that just came to me I haven't researched it, 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.240 but I would assume if one of the PlayStations, um, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.840 you know, gives up the ghost, then you could pull 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.320 it out and you know, put another machine in there 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.520 far more affordably than you could if you're a supercomputer, 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.720 you know, your crazy definitely, definitely, because you're talking about 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:14.800 you know, off the shelf components versus sometimes uh very 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:19.720 specific um unique parts. I mean, some of these supercomputers 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.440 are running on chips that you know, they essentially come 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:24.720 out of the lab and go into a supercomputer, so 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.439 they're not even at the mass production phase necessarily for 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.840 some of these chips, whereas with the p S three 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.480 you just go to best Buy or you know something 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.520 and just pick one off the shelf and go and 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:36.119 you buy it and you're done. You have to go 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:37.800 back and you you know, you have to of course 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.000 install the operating system and and and attach it to 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.680 your cluster part of the cluster. It's not like it's 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.120 just plug in play. But it's a lot easier than 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.639 if you suddenly had your supercomputer go oopsie on you. Yeah, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.320 not that I've ever heard of a PlayStation three having 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.080 that kind of a problem. Now that's more of an 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.679 Xbox three sixty kind of thing. See, now people are 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:59.119 gonna write to me and say that I hate the 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:01.640 Xbox three six, despite the fact that I am an 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.280 avid Xbox fan. But come on, guys, that red ring 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.800 of death. Seriously. Oh you know, I I wouldn't mind having. 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:11.720 I don't own either one, and I would like at 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.520 PlayStation three and an Xbox reason so would I put 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.159 it on my Amazon wish list, And no one has 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.239 picked it up yet. I keep checking. Well, you know, 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:22.080 look in your stocking. We'll see what we can do. 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.080 And I have been gaining a lot of weight. My 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:30.000 stocking has been getting larger, Leon is getting larger. Well, 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.000 I guess, uh, that's a good discussion about the p 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.880 S three supercomputer connection. Um, that was a great question, Tim. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:38.399 He actually he actually, Although I said it was a 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.480 listener text message, he sent his request via phone, which 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:43.600 a lot of you have been doing. And it just 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:47.840 shows that our listeners are super cool smartphone users, which 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:52.240 is awesome. Um. Well, I guess that wraps up that discussion, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.080 but it does lead us to a little listener mail. 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.960 This listener mail comes from Immanual Emmanuel says, Hey, they're 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.919 imitating Jonathan because you guys are awesome. Thank you. You 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.879 guys mentioned that NATAL uses only gestures and it is 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.200 unsure of whether it will be too much of a 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.040 leap in technology. However, one thing you forgot to mention 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.880 is that NATAL can actually scan physical objects, which then 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:21.439 allows you to use real world objects in your games. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.560 This can range from skateboards, tennis rackets, to an air 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:28.080 soft gun for first person shoots, etcetera. In my humble opinion, 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:30.480 the developers are really in control of whether or not 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.199 their game will implement some sort of physical object. The 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:34.960 only way to find out is to wait until the 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.800 release date. We shall see. I'm Emmanuel from Bermuda and 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:43.560 this is my okay. Now, this was a request from Immanual. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.879 So anyone who gets annoyed by me yelling into the microphone, 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.320 this is your opportunity. Turned down the volume now, okay, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:52.480 I'm going to count to three, and after that I'm 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.000 gonna fulfill Emmanual's requests. Remember this is a manual asking 0:22:56.040 --> 0:23:01.960 for this, so please turn down your volume one, two, three. 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:12.080 Listener Maid in the tone that you used to use 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.320 because it always managed to make me laugh. Thanks Emmanuel, 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:17.120 I hope you guys were able to turn your volume 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.760