It’s really interesting when the most compelling thing about your platform is something you haven’t done for it. If you’ve been reading any Gizmodo recently regarding the ps3 the posts go something like this:
* Folding@Home will be released on the ps3! * Folding@Home arriving soon on the ps3. * Folding@Home arrives on the ps3. * ps3 pwns Folding@Home stats.The Playstation 3 accounts for more than half the current TFLOPS on F@H, and it’s so new, it’s only got 30,000 active CPUs (contrast with about 200,000 odd PCs/Macs). In fact, using F@H as a (very dodgy) yardstick we can see that a ps3 is about 16 times as powerful as a PC. Considering the fact that it’s also going graphics a fair bit fancier than the PC versions of F@H do, it’s a pretty compelling reason to consider getting one.
As a gaming platform, it may not be all that, but IBM really have delivered with their cell processor. If we could get it for (a fair bit) cheaper in this country, and there was a linux kernel for it, I may consider getting one.
The only problem is, what on earth would I use it for?