<s>
A	O
PlayStation	B-General_Concept
3	I-General_Concept
cluster	I-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
distributed	B-Architecture
system	I-Architecture
computer	I-Architecture
composed	O
primarily	O
of	O
PlayStation	B-Operating_System
3	I-Operating_System
video	B-Device
game	I-Device
consoles	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
Before	O
and	O
during	O
the	O
console	O
's	O
production	B-Application
lifetime	I-Application
,	O
its	O
powerful	O
IBM	O
Cell	B-General_Concept
CPU	B-Device
attracted	O
interest	O
in	O
using	O
multiple	O
,	O
networked	O
PS3s	B-Operating_System
for	O
affordable	O
high-performance	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
PlayStation	B-General_Concept
3	I-General_Concept
clusters	I-General_Concept
have	O
had	O
different	O
configurations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
distributed	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
system	O
utilizing	O
PlayStation	B-Operating_System
3	I-Operating_System
consoles	O
does	O
not	O
need	O
to	O
meet	O
the	O
strict	O
definition	O
of	O
a	O
computer	B-Architecture
cluster	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
National	B-General_Concept
Center	I-General_Concept
for	I-General_Concept
Supercomputing	I-General_Concept
Applications	I-General_Concept
had	O
already	O
built	O
a	O
cluster	B-Architecture
based	O
on	O
the	O
PlayStation	B-Device
2	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
Terra	O
Soft	O
Solutions	O
has	O
a	O
version	O
of	O
Yellow	O
Dog	O
Linux	B-Application
for	O
the	O
PlayStation	B-Operating_System
3	I-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
sells	O
PS3s	B-Operating_System
with	O
it	O
pre-installed	O
,	O
in	O
single	O
units	O
and	O
in	O
8	O
and	O
32	O
node	O
clusters	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
RapidMind	O
developed	O
a	O
stream	B-Application
programming	I-Application
package	O
for	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
January	O
3	O
,	O
2007	O
,	O
Dr.	O
Frank	O
Mueller	O
,	O
Associate	O
Professor	O
of	O
Computer	O
Science	O
at	O
North	O
Carolina	O
State	O
University	O
,	O
clustered	O
8	O
PS3s	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
Software	O
includes	O
:	O
Fedora	O
Core	O
5	O
Linux	B-Application
ppc64	O
,	O
</s>
<s>
MPICH2	O
,	O
OpenMP	O
v2.5	O
,	O
GNU	B-Application
Compiler	I-Application
Collection	I-Application
,	O
and	O
CellSDK	O
1.1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
mid-2007	O
,	O
Gaurav	O
Khanna	O
,	O
a	O
professor	O
in	O
the	O
Physics	O
Department	O
of	O
the	O
University	O
of	O
Massachusetts	O
Dartmouth	O
,	O
independently	O
built	O
a	O
message-passing	O
based	O
cluster	B-Architecture
using	O
8	O
PS3s	B-Operating_System
running	O
Fedora	O
Linux	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
built	O
with	O
support	O
from	O
Sony	O
Computer	O
Entertainment	O
as	O
the	O
first	O
PS3	B-General_Concept
cluster	I-General_Concept
with	O
published	O
scientific	O
results	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Named	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
Gravity	O
Grid	O
,	O
it	O
performed	O
astrophysical	O
simulations	O
of	O
large	O
supermassive	O
black	O
holes	O
capturing	O
smaller	O
compact	O
objects	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Khanna	O
claims	O
performance	O
exceeds	O
that	O
of	O
a	O
100+	O
Intel	O
Xeon	O
core	O
based	O
traditional	O
Linux	B-Architecture
cluster	I-Architecture
,	O
on	O
his	O
simulations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
Gravity	O
Grid	O
gathered	O
significant	O
media	O
attention	O
through	O
2007	O
,	O
2008	O
,	O
2009	O
,	O
and	O
2010	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
May	O
2008	O
,	O
The	O
Laboratory	O
for	O
Cryptological	O
Algorithms	O
,	O
under	O
the	O
direction	O
of	O
Arjen	O
Lenstra	O
at	O
École	O
Polytechnique	O
Fédérale	O
de	O
Lausanne	O
,	O
built	O
a	O
cluster	B-Architecture
of	O
200	O
consoles	O
which	O
broke	O
a	O
record	O
for	O
the	O
Diffie-Hellman	O
problem	O
on	O
elliptic	O
curves	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
cluster	B-Architecture
operated	O
until	O
2015	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
November	O
2010	O
,	O
the	O
Air	O
Force	O
Research	O
Laboratory	O
created	O
a	O
powerful	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
,	O
nicknamed	O
the	O
"	O
Condor	O
Cluster	B-Architecture
"	O
,	O
by	O
connecting	O
together	O
1,760	O
consoles	O
with	O
168	O
GPUs	O
and	O
84	O
coordinating	O
servers	O
in	O
a	O
parallel	O
array	O
capable	O
of	O
500	O
trillion	O
floating-point	O
operations	O
per	O
second	O
(	O
500	O
TFLOPS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
built	O
,	O
the	O
Condor	O
Cluster	B-Architecture
was	O
the	O
33rd	O
largest	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
in	O
the	O
world	O
and	O
was	O
used	O
to	O
analyze	O
high	O
definition	O
satellite	O
imagery	O
while	O
costing	O
only	O
one	O
tenth	O
that	O
of	O
a	O
traditional	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Even	O
a	O
single	O
PS3	B-Operating_System
can	O
significantly	O
accelerate	O
some	O
computations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Marc	O
Stevens	O
,	O
Arjen	O
K	O
.	O
Lenstra	O
,	O
and	O
Benne	O
de	O
Weger	O
have	O
demonstrated	O
an	O
MD5	B-Algorithm
brute-force	O
attack	O
in	O
a	O
few	O
hours	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
November	O
2007	O
,	O
they	O
said	O
:	O
"	O
Essentially	O
,	O
a	O
single	O
PlayStation	B-Operating_System
3	I-Operating_System
performs	O
like	O
a	O
cluster	B-Architecture
of	O
30	O
PCs	O
at	O
the	O
price	O
of	O
only	O
one	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
March	O
22	O
,	O
2007	O
,	O
SCE	O
and	O
Stanford	O
University	O
expanded	O
the	O
Folding	B-Application
@home	I-Application
project	O
to	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
Along	O
with	O
thousands	O
of	O
PCs	O
already	O
joined	O
over	O
the	O
Internet	O
,	O
PS3	B-Operating_System
owners	O
contributed	O
to	O
the	O
study	O
of	O
improper	O
protein	O
folding	O
and	O
associated	O
diseases	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Alzheimer	O
's	O
,	O
Parkinson	O
's	O
,	O
Huntington	O
's	O
,	O
cystic	O
fibrosis	O
,	O
and	O
cancer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
software	O
was	O
included	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
1.6	O
firmware	O
update	O
on	O
March	O
22	O
,	O
2007	O
,	O
and	O
can	O
be	O
set	O
to	O
run	O
manually	O
or	O
automatically	O
when	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
is	O
idle	O
through	O
the	O
Cross	B-Device
Media	I-Device
Bar	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
Processing	O
power	O
from	O
PS3	B-Operating_System
users	O
greatly	O
contributed	O
,	O
ranked	O
third	O
to	O
Nvidia	O
and	O
AMD	O
GPUs	O
in	O
teraflops	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
March	O
2011	O
,	O
more	O
than	O
one	O
million	O
PS3s	B-Operating_System
had	O
Folding	B-Application
@home	I-Application
installed	O
and	O
more	O
than	O
27,000	O
active	O
,	O
for	O
a	O
total	O
of	O
8.1	O
petaFLOPS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
comparison	O
,	O
the	O
world	O
's	O
most	O
powerful	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
as	O
of	O
November	O
2010	O
,	O
the	O
Tianhe-IA	B-Device
,	O
has	O
a	O
peak	O
performance	O
of	O
2.56	O
petaFLOPS	O
,	O
or	O
2,566	O
teraFLOPS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
latest	O
report	O
stated	O
that	O
Folding	B-Application
@Home	I-Application
has	O
passed	O
the	O
5	O
native	O
petaFLOP	O
mark	O
,	O
of	O
which	O
767	O
teraFLOPS	O
were	O
supplied	O
by	O
PlayStation	B-Operating_System
3	I-Operating_System
clients	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Computational	O
Biochemistry	O
and	O
Biophysics	O
Lab	O
in	O
Barcelona	O
has	O
launched	O
a	O
distributed	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
project	O
called	O
PS3GRID	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
eHiTS	O
Lightning	O
is	O
the	O
first	O
virtual	O
screening	O
and	O
molecular	O
docking	O
software	O
for	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
application	O
runs	O
up	O
to	O
30	O
times	O
faster	O
on	O
a	O
single	O
PS3	B-Operating_System
than	O
on	O
a	O
regular	O
single	O
CPU	B-Device
PC	O
,	O
and	O
it	O
runs	O
on	O
PS3	B-General_Concept
clusters	I-General_Concept
,	O
achieving	O
screening	O
of	O
huge	O
chemical	O
compound	O
libraries	O
in	O
hours	O
or	O
days	O
rather	O
than	O
weeks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
March	O
28	O
,	O
2010	O
,	O
Sony	O
announced	O
it	O
would	O
be	O
disabling	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
's	O
OtherOS	B-Application
feature	O
,	O
with	O
the	O
v3.21	O
update	O
,	O
due	O
to	O
security	O
concerns	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
update	O
would	O
not	O
affect	O
any	O
existing	O
supercomputing	B-Architecture
clusters	O
,	O
because	O
they	O
are	O
not	O
connected	O
to	O
PlayStation	B-Device
Network	I-Device
and	O
would	O
not	O
be	O
forced	O
to	O
update	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
caused	O
the	O
end	O
of	O
the	B-Operating_System
PS3	I-Operating_System
's	O
common	O
use	O
for	O
clustered	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
,	O
though	O
projects	O
like	O
"	O
The	O
Condor	O
"	O
were	O
still	O
being	O
created	O
with	O
older	O
PS3	B-Operating_System
units	O
,	O
and	O
have	O
come	O
online	O
after	O
that	O
update	O
.	O
</s>
