Gaming's goodwill processor--the one inside the PlayStation 3--has proved once again that it's around for more than just kicking butt in Grand Theft Auto. We've seen the system help fight cancer with protein-folding research and CT tumor scans. And now the same technology that, on a small scale, helps the careening cars in GTA IV skid, flip and crash like real ones is helping scientists on a much larger scale.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico have used microprocessors developed for the PS3 to power the fastest supercomputer on earth, the Roadrunner. This new extreme machine will help to model the world's physical reactions in the face of extremely complex, multivariate situations--like the future of changing weather patterns or radioactive fallout simulations.

LANL brass, like other supercomputer researchers across the country, have been looking to amp up aging extreme machines. They recognized that the PS3's powerhouse microchip core, the Cell, had computational power that could make their own virtual calculations both faster and "smarter"--a term used to describe a computer's ability to handle multiple problems at once.

The PS3 Cell speeds up the gaming system's ability to assimilate virtual situations based on player choices; essentially it makes a player's screen behave more like the real world. The Cell does this by breaking up information and processing problems among eight simple processing elements (SPEs), each of which simultaneously perform computations while retrieving and sending data. So the SPEs function like team members splitting up tasks in an organized, self-sufficient manner--where other, slower processors function more like a single unit.

Programmers at LANL first worked with IBM to tweak the Cell in 2007, and have now fully integrated it into Roadrunner. LANL announced today that it has broken supercomputer speed records by performing 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second (in computing language, 10^15 calculations per second, a long coveted goal, is known as a petaflop). That's more than twice as many as the world's previous fastest supercomputer at Livermore National Laboratory California.

The Roadrunner will be used to model climate-change problems before moving into classified research for the military that will test the effects of nuclear weaponry, potentially replacing dangerous real-world testing applications with virtual ones.

Sony's PS3 has taken a lot of flack over the past couple of years. We know this development won't drive console sales, but with this information in mind current PS3 owners may find new respect for the mini-supercomputer sitting inconspicuously in their living room.

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