The fine researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications have discovered what gamers have known for quite some time: the PlayStation 2 is a truly kickass piece of hardware. They’ve linked 70 PS2s in serial to form a supercomputer that can crank out around a half trillion operations per second.
The PS2’s MIPS processor isn’t the brains of the operation, though. The real processing power lies in the machine’s Emotion Engine graphics co-processor. Some of the most advanced research into computing power is going into graphics chips right now, and it’s producing not only very fast processors, but very inexpensive processors.
The machine assembled by the NCSA is a testament to low-cost supercomputing. Its off-the-shelf parts only set the researchers back US$50,000.
And people have been telling me for years that game consoles are just toys.
via the Daily Illuminator
