PS3 Folding@home with 1.6 update

New firmware upgrade will link PlayStation 3s to Stanford-run distributed-computing project researching cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's causes.

At last year's Tokyo Game Show, Ken Kutaragi gave a keynote address that contained little new PlayStation 3 information. It did, however, outline how the PS3's massive computing power would be used for an altruistic endeavor called the Folding@home Project.

Organized by Stanford University, the Folding@home Project is similar to the University of California-Berkeley's SETI@home project. The latter effort uses idling PCs linked to the Web as a "virtual supercomputer" to help the SETI Project search for extraterrestrial life.

The Folding@home Project will do something similar. It will integrate idling, online PS3s into a distributed-computing project studying the causes of various diseases. Among the ailments under investigation are Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, and various cancers.

"Millions of users have experienced the power of PS3 entertainment. Now they can utilize that exceptional computing power to help fight diseases," Masayuki Chatani, Sony Computer Entertainment's chief technical officer, said in a statement. "In order to study protein folding, researchers need more than just one supercomputer, but the massive processing power of thousands of networked computers. Previously, PCs have been the only option for scientists, but now, they have a new, more powerful tool--[the] PS3."

Folding@home Project functionality will be included in the 1.6 PS3 firmware update, which is due out at the end of the month. After installing the update, PS3 owners who wish to join the project will be able to find the Folding@home Project under the network menu of the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XMB). PS3s will only join the Folding@home Project network when in an idle state while connected to the Internet.

501 Comments

  • luke1889

    Posted Apr 22, 2007 2:47 am PT

    Wow, this is a great idea.

  • d33pak

    Posted Apr 21, 2007 11:28 pm PT

    This is a really cool idea. I wonder what they do with the processing power and how?

  • Neon-Wingz

    Posted Apr 21, 2007 8:32 pm PT

    Whether or not it is really to "make" people buy PS3's, at least they are doing something out of it. I dont care if they make gazzilions as long as they really do contribute into finding a cure for cancer. And note, they are not asking anyone to buy the PS3 and diss the 360, they're just letting u know what it can do, and support if you believe it.

  • Zigmond1

    Posted Apr 21, 2007 8:21 pm PT

    so they want PS3 owners to find a cure for cancer??
    thats kinda dumb

  • zero_snake99

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 1:36 pm PT

    Wow...darendt...you're stupid...deny a cancer treatment just because its from Sony? And this is coming from a guy who has a Brian Fury avatar....

  • darendt69

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 11:39 pm PT

    whgresiak whatever sony sux
    -----------

    Well than if they do find a cure and by chance ever get it or anything else they help cure..........dont use the cure. Also since Sony sucks so much you may want to open up some of the electronics you have around your house. Chances ae there Sony chips in most of them.

  • bobdurfob

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 4:18 pm PT

    wow. this is awesome.

  • Roxas_27

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 3:25 pm PT

    Wow, amazing how shallow the people here are. First of all, the PS3 uses less power than the 360 when on stand-by mode, and secondly, Stanford University went to Sony and suggested their program. In other words, it wasn't Sony's idea. Oh, and no, this article isn't a lie. Nice try though. Glad to see a gaming company contributing to a worthy cause.

  • flexx55

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 2:55 pm PT

    Solidsnakehd, agreed.

  • Splincir

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 1:09 pm PT

    Ha ha. Finally one of Kutaragi's outregeous claims comes true. "PS3 Cures Cancer!" Now I wonder if it will travel through time!

  • mdcdeve

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 12:52 pm PT

    agreed

  • Donari

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 5:56 am PT

    Ditto, solidsnakehd.

  • solidsnakehd

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 1:16 am PT

    I love ps3.I hate x360

  • kingpimp101

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 9:58 pm PT

    Wow you're clearly misinformed. You really did escape from an asylum didn't u... Cancer is a genetic mutation causing cells to rapidly divide into tumours, they're just cells not concious beings. I'm sure if you had one of those babies lodged in your brain threatening them would seem such a bad idea. Anyway, sounds good. Don't have a PS3 though and I don't expect to have one for some time.

  • Lab392

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 3:47 pm PT

    AsylumEscapee:
    "Did anyone stop to think that cancer is a living creature and shouldn't be threatened like this? Also, sure the PS3 has a good CPU, but with the 360s GPU the cancer cells would look 100x more lifelike, not to mention it would have better online play. The 360 also has more exclusives and a brighter future meaning more money for god, the creator of cancer."

    This'd better be a joke . a tumor is just an overgrown cluster of white blood cells. so technically, it is a group of living creatures that went terribly wrong and should be "put down" automatically.

  • willauqs

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 10:41 am PT

    why don't we all all just send in our old ps2's for a discount on ps3 and then sony could use all the ps2's power 24/7 at their own expense of electricity. Im sure they would have more power from all the ps2 trade in's than from the 10 guy out there with ps3's right now.

  • gimmesum29

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 4:13 am PT

    wow i am surprise of how many stupid people on gamespot. well idling ur ps3 could help people or maybe its supporting Terrorism. so that would mean we are all terrorist . nooooooo!!! it can't be true nooooo.....

  • j0na8aca

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 8:05 pm PT

    Hmm. I hope they are letting scientists use it for free. Because the PS3 is pretty expensive. That's why I don't have one yet.

  • AsylumEscapee

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 7:00 pm PT

    Did anyone stop to think that cancer is a living creature and shouldn't be threatened like this? Also, sure the PS3 has a good CPU, but with the 360s GPU the cancer cells would look 100x more lifelike, not to mention it would have better online play. The 360 also has more exclusives and a brighter future meaning more money for god, the creator of cancer.

  • racerx737

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 4:50 pm PT

    Dtaylorusc "Does this mean buying a PS3 can be a tax deductible charity donation?" hmmm good point, makes sense to me, I don't see why not lol.

  • mrwaliwali

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 9:22 am PT

    for those that are sceptical: from standford 'According to the statistics page, there are currently 159198 Windows PCs that are actively participating in the project, and those combined processors have reached a total of 151 TFLOPS. By comparison, the number of active PS3 machines totals only 14971, but the combined power of PS3 consoles is already contributing more than half of the 616 total TFLOPS that are currently being devoted to the project. "

  • Family_Jewels

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 12:41 am PT

    Even if you slam the PS3, or this Project, at least you can give Sony brownie points for cooking up a creative feature or two.

  • topraman517

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 5:44 pm PT

    It's a great idea! I might very well do that myself with my PC, if anyone is allowed to participate.

  • Alexmon

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 4:39 pm PT

    I'm not against finding a cure for cancer and all (my Dad even had cancer), but we have to worry about overheating, electric bill, and the environment overall, because you waste tons of electricity doing this.

  • tomazborges11

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 9:09 am PT

    excellent move by sony, but a hardware with heating problems isnt the best platform to distribute computing.
    however, any help here at folding, is welcome

  • AL13NK1LL3R

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 8:49 am PT

    wow... that very stupid and well all they saing is lyin and all their tryin to do make u buy ps3

  • ElSatanno

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 7:28 am PT

    Sure it's hard to believe that any major corporation is capable of any acts of altruism, but let's not mince words. The gesture is noble enough to be worthy of praise. Hats off to Sony.

  • Rev06

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 5:47 am PT

    Um, I like the cause, but that still isn't going to make me buy a PS3 anytime soon.

  • MB_E102

    Posted Mar 23, 2007 12:01 am PT

    Smackimus.... LMFAO!!!! THATS F'CKING HILARIOUS!!!

  • Smackimus

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 11:39 pm PT

    I'm going to laugh when we all find out Sony is just using this to research ways to enlarge their dicks.

  • Dojotigers

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 10:29 pm PT

    its a good feature and that is that quit arguing

  • Turisman4

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 10:29 pm PT

    If you've seen the results of SETI and that particle-collider thing that also used software like this, you'd be surprised. It works.

  • voidshadow

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 8:24 pm PT

    What a dumb idea...just another way for the government and corporations worm their way into your private property.

  • PandaOps

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 7:36 pm PT

    As they said in the article, they were previously only able to do this on the computer. I was a participant in the computer Folding@home Project for quite a long time. You were able to track your computers progress on that certain protein or whatever with graphs and little numbers.

    Good idea, but think of all that money you might be saving by turning your PS3 off and just donating that money you save from your power bill to an organization....humm... What an idea...

  • sailingmanuel

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 7:13 pm PT

    I got my PS3 doing this right now and you can join teams. I did not know anyone who had one so I made one if any one wants to join. Walking Dead
    team#56285 I plan on leaving it on all the time.

  • StarFoxCOM

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 6:47 pm PT

    Helping Cure Cancer wierd

  • Draconis89

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 6:40 pm PT

    Very nice idea, I'm glad Sony is doing this I hope wii and XBox 360 follow in sony foot steps. This is for a good cause.

  • FstBrk342

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 6:01 pm PT

    lol well if it ends up failing as a console why not use it for somthing positive?

  • Rickiej

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 1:52 pm PT

    Dude this is like totally a really good idea, my mom had cancer and now i'm going to buy that thing even if its sucks.
    lol im going to have it all night conected to the internet

  • creep93

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 12:10 pm PT

    That's... interesting.

  • tidyspidey

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 10:56 am PT

    cool idea, although it would be interesting to know how much of your electricity supply this feature uses up whilst the PS3 is supposedly "idle".....

    With the western world all too concerned about power consumption and carbon footprints etc at the moment, this is the sort of thing that is really important to consumers.

    When I get a PS3 eventually, it would be great to take part in the scheme and know I'm helping something bigger, but not at the expense of my electricity bill and the environment. I imagine the PS3 will use quite a lot of juice, right?

  • Tekirai

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 9:26 am PT

    *opens mouth and raises finger*

    ...

    ... I don't know what to think of that. o_0;

  • Goldeneyemaster

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 7:15 am PT

    Looks like the PS3 finally has a use.

  • Sanguis_Malus

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 6:19 am PT

    "PS3s will only join the Folding@home Project network when in an idle state while connected to the Internet." ??????? Its a start Sony but its not nearly enough, donate a small portion of profits or set up a foundation !

  • maxmax1234

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 5:50 am PT

    i dont get it, but whatever.... go PS3

  • wanderingblade

    Posted Mar 22, 2007 3:42 am PT

    umm...ok

  • killer295

    Posted Mar 21, 2007 9:35 pm PT

    nice... keep up the good work ps3!

  • AntoniustheGrey

    Posted Mar 21, 2007 9:35 pm PT

    I dont' really know what to say for once.

  • koopatroopa1015

    Posted Mar 21, 2007 6:42 pm PT

    About time Sony does something good, their PS3 is finally made to use! No seriously. This could really help the people with those diseases.

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