In the PS3GRID project on biomedical research that is being carried out by Researchers at the Research Unit on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB) at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) in Barcelona.
The project is attempting to learn how proteins work at the molecular level using the PlayStation 3 Cell processor. The results will be used in the fight against important diseases, such as Alzheimer's. Simulating the behaviour of microscopic biomolecules is of enormous difficulty when designing algorithms and architecture analysis, even for the most modern computers. Understanding it is necessary for medicine to be able to fight serious diseases.
For these simulations, the researchers decided to use the power of the PlayStation 3 Cell processor. The PlayStation 3 Cell processor is the product of research and development efforts of three large firms: Sony, Toshiba and IBM. There will be eight microprocessors working simultaneously, coordinated by a ninth microchip. This is supercomputer technology available to regular consumers, a processor capable of computing at a speed much higher than any conventional PC.
The
computing capacity of 100 systems (PlayStation 3) will be the equivalent of thousands of
conventional computers. The results obtained in this research are an important base for future
study to continue advancing current knowledge about many diseases: "The PS3GRID project is a
general computational infrastructure that can be used to study any type of protein. In the project
being carried out in collaboration with Sony Europe, we have focused on proteins related to
Alzheimer's disease," explains professor
Gianni de Fabritiis, the study's coordinator.
In order
to facilitate attaining the data and finding PS3 owners who wish to collaborate and contribute to
scientific developments, the
www.ps3grid.net platform was begun at the end of last year.
From this page, any user can download the Linux Live operating system and the PS3GRID software in just a few seconds and save it to a 1GB USB flash drive. Then you only need to load the PS3GRID software in the PlayStation 3 using the USB device where the software is saved.
Once installed on your PlayStation 3, the software directly connects your PlayStation 3 system to the PS3GRID server, downloading the scientific calculations that will be done by your PlayStation 3. You don't have to do anything else, and thanks to the Cell processor, these molecular calculations will be done 16 times faster than on a normal PC. To return to playing games or to use your PlayStation 3 for other activities, just restart the system.