AfterDawn: News

PlayStation 3 to be used for military interests?

Recently, Mercury Computer Systems released its MultiCore Plus SDK for the PlayStation 3. The event is pretty notable because it is one of the very few third-party developments kits available for game consoles.

Mercury has said however, that they are not at all interested in games but rather in military interests citing the PlayStation's Cell processor as being a very powerful yet still pretty cheap platform.



Mercury is using the PS3's ability to load Linux and pairing it with its SDK to perform powerful tasks such as running a node in a computing cluster.

The new SDK wont be cheap however, a single-seat license will cost you $399 USD.

Source:
Electronista

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 3 Aug 2007 14:37

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• 38 comments

• vinny13

  Lmao.... Only with the PS3.

  3.8.2007 15:02 #1

• AXT

  Only if programmers would stop being lazy and learn how to properly program for the PS3. Only then could we start to see the true power of the PS3.

  3.8.2007 15:16 #2

• vinny13

  Originally posted by AXT: Only if programmers would stop being lazy and learn how to properly program for the PS3. Only then could we start to see the true power of the PS3.True...

  3.8.2007 15:29 #3

• faqman98

  or.....if someone learned how to swap the hadrives allowing people to run the ps3 OS on a pc and windows/mac on a ps3

  3.8.2007 16:12 #4

• bhpcrew

  I guess Dave Chappelle wasn't lying in that skit when he said "Japan's sending Playstations" to help us fight in the war in Iraq:)

  3.8.2007 16:29 #5

• tucker001

  sounds cool

  3.8.2007 17:04 #6

• tucker001

  so bush is sending our troops over to iraq to play ps3s and get blown up

  3.8.2007 17:04 #7

• escalante

  Quote:so bush is sending our troops over to iraq to play ps3s and get blown up^^
  At least they get to play PS3's before they die....

  3.8.2007 17:33 #8

• bhpcrew

  Iraq is not a game. Escalante don't make comments about the troops might like." At least they get to play PS3's before they die." Some might found your comment senitertive.

  3.8.2007 18:34 #9

• 26r0cK

  Agree with AXT ...and agree with bhpcrew. Its cool to see the PS3 being used in different varieties then just a home game console.

  3.8.2007 18:39 #10

• escalante

  I meant the comment by Tucker001....He said "Blown up". If they do get blown up, they get to play PS3 before they die....I didn't mean it to sound insensitive...

  3.8.2007 18:53 #11

• vinny13

  OWNAGE!
  
  lol

  3.8.2007 18:55 #12

• tucker001

  im stating my opinion

  3.8.2007 19:05 #13

• jetyi83

  Originally posted by tucker001: im stating my opinionwell hopefully youre not serious, because if so you must ride a short bus

  3.8.2007 20:39 #14

• navi1199

  Quote:Only if programmers would stop being lazy and learn how to properly program for the PS3. Only then could we start to see the true power of the PS3.
  
  When they do that, our prices of games will skyrocket because its not cheap to make games that are hard to produce...

  3.8.2007 21:26 #15

• ChiknLitl

  Quote:Originally posted by tucker001: im stating my opinionwell hopefully youre not serious, because if so you must ride a short busUmmm...Why the short bus? The guy is entitled to his opinion.

  3.8.2007 22:02 #16

• DXR88

  There are no games for it because the developement kit has not yet reached third party programmer. And i really, for the love of america, hope in gods name that the military is not going to use the PS3 for anything other than basic combat sim. if they startlaunching
  projectile such as missiles with it. it will be come a terrerist's wet dream.
  
  it would be just as bad as giving them are weapons Like are M16A2
  wait we already did that oh well,

  3.8.2007 22:09 #17

• xtago

  Quote:Quote:Only if programmers would stop being lazy and learn how to properly program for the PS3. Only then could we start to see the true power of the PS3.
  
  When they do that, our prices of games will skyrocket because its not cheap to make games that are hard to produce...LOL, the PS3 is hard to make software yet GTA4 is held back on the 360 because they can't get it running properly.

  3.8.2007 22:15 #18

• tucker001

  It is true Bush is sending our troops to Iraq for no reason and they are getting blown up by suicide car bombers. Bush needs to go back to working at Jiffy Lube or something.
  

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  3.8.2007 22:18 #19

• chubbyInc

  Sony made the same comment about the PS2 back in the day saying Saddam Hussein was buying up 100,000 PS2's so they could control Weapons of Mass Destruction. Just a stupid marketing ploy to get stupid people who actually believe that to buy the system and make them feel special.
  
  Playstation's Cell Processor is a joke any computer 2 years old can do 10x better. Oh maybe I can use my computer to contribute to the military, find all them weapons of Mass Destruction with Google Earth.

  3.8.2007 23:18 #20

• DXR88

  chubbyinc your joking right no computer processor can do better than a cell processor the gigaherts are about the same but the floating point room is ungodly and the flops are tremendis.

  4.8.2007 06:51 #21

• neo1000

  Cool more ways to kill our selves

  4.8.2007 09:56 #22

• chubbyInc

  DXR88, PC will always be more powerful then gaming systems Reasons are as follows - gaming console are designed for specific things... ie games! PCs are more for multi-tasking, and most importantly upgradeable. Gaming systems are designed to last what 5 years or so till the next version / newer console is made.
  We see consoles are starting to try and push into the multimedia realm and be used for things that seem computer related ie internet, watching videos / movies / play music... however these features are made more readily to be user friendly and give minimal/basic experiences to home users.... it's why people pick windows over linux.... it's simply easier to use
  
  The 3.2GHz Cell Processor can have whatever clock speed it want, but with 256 Mhz of main RAM the system is bottlenecked. So why in the world would the military want to use a system that is bottlenecked and single tasked oriented. Besides as if the military would share with the public what technology it uses.

  4.8.2007 12:34 #23

• SProdigy

  Quote:Quote:so bush is sending our troops over to iraq to play ps3s and get blown up^^
  At least they get to play PS3's before they die....What games would they even play? :-)

  4.8.2007 13:34 #24

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by DXR88: There are no games for it because the developement kit has not yet reached third party programmer. And i really, for the love of america, hope in gods name that the military is not going to use the PS3 for anything other than basic combat sim. if they startlaunching
  projectile such as missiles with it. it will be come a terrerist's wet dream.
  
  it would be just as bad as giving them are weapons Like are M16A2
  wait we already did that oh well,Ya remember the whole PS2 BS years back this is not quite a good thing ><
  
  The PS3 is a beast and might offer 50% more power than the 360 once its gets fully optimized but until then every other game will work well on it.
  
  and sony will probably go threw 3 more revisions before settling on 1 for the long haul....

  4.8.2007 16:30 #25

• DXR88

  Yea i hear ya zippy.
  
  chubbyinc the thing is home computers as of 2009 will see the cell processor disign. Intel & Amd have been trying new ways to use cell cpu's on current motherboards and stay withen the power constraint
  they only have one beta-board that has passed that constraint however the equipment used is a bit costly at the moment. so you'll
  see a price drop on that technology used in about 2011.
  
  but i praise the tech heads that buy the stuff if not for them the price on such stuff would never drop

  4.8.2007 18:17 #26

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by DXR88: Yea i hear ya zippy.
  
  chubbyinc the thing is home computers as of 2009 will see the cell processor disign. Intel & Amd have been trying new ways to use cell cpu's on current motherboards and stay withen the power constraint
  they only have one beta-board that has passed that constraint however the equipment used is a bit costly at the moment. so you'll
  see a price drop on that technology used in about 2011.
  
  but i praise the tech heads that buy the stuff if not for them the price on such stuff would never dropSo we are finally starting to see the shape of a retail CPU thats not super multi core based(like the 4 and 6+ core with 4+MB of cache on them)?

  4.8.2007 18:27 #27

• DXR88

  Yep see zippy the cell is just as power full as a 6 core processor
  put the power constraints on the cell processor would be identical to the six core cpu so the switch was provoked by future concerns

  4.8.2007 18:33 #28

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by DXR88: Yep see zippy the cell is just as power full as a 6 core processor
  put the power constraints on the cell processor would be identical to the six core cpu so the switch was provoked by future concernsSO what is a Cell,would a good noobish laymen explanation be,its more like a central prossceing board with more 2nd and 3rd processing power than a tradishnail CPU?
  
  How dose this change effect mobo configs and ramm?

  4.8.2007 23:37 #29

• DXR88

  its defficult to explain so heres a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor

  5.8.2007 06:54 #30

• borhan9

  Quote:The new SDK wont be cheap however, a single-seat license will cost you $399 USD.I doubt that the price would stop the military.

  7.8.2007 03:49 #31

• DXR88

  that price wont stop terrerists ether

  7.8.2007 07:12 #32

• pmshah

  Price will after all be the determining factor.
  
  Take for instance the fate of British designed Transputer & its associated programming language Occam. It was the most powerful CPU by far in its time.
  
  Unfortunately it was not cheap & the language too was difficult to master.
  
  Cell processor is an IBM product. They can afford to use it in their product range in any way it suits them. If a person can aster thie software on a PS3 and get all the bugs out they can spend & go for a dedicated board design for specific application.
  
  BTW from last heard about it the Cell microprocessor has 16 cores & wins against any competitive processor hand down.

  9.8.2007 20:11 #33

• WindHawk

  This part of this message is for all the people out there that can't spell - learn. If you can master technology, you can spell english words. It is not cute, cool, hip, or smart to butcher the language; it just makes you look ignorant and foolish. Texting abbreviations belong in text messages, not here where you should be understood.
  
  In regard to the comments about soldiers getting to play games, here's a news flash - computer combat simulations have been used by the military for about ten years now. If you really had a finger on the pulse of this subject you would already know this.
  
  The stupidity of comments such as Quote: It is true Bush is sending our troops to Iraq for no reason and they are getting blown up by suicide car bombers. Bush needs to go back to working at Jiffy Lube or something.Quote: is appalling. One should try to educate oneself before opening the mouth and letting their lack of information be exposed for the world to see. Stop buying all the media has for sale and ask a real soldier why troops are in Iraq before shooting your mouth off. Besides, this is a technology forum and not a political one. Sorry if this seems like flames, but this kind of stuff is all over the web, and it just makes you look like a twelve year old when you spout off about things you don't know about, especially when you write so poorly.
  
  In regard to this thread, the military is right to be interested in the gaming platforms because of the graphics resolution and the realistic motion that these consoles can produce. If you have ever seen the simulations that are in use and have been used to train our forces, they do look quite artificial and the way the images move on screen is not natural. That is why the military is interested in these systems, not so they can play games. The military use of this technology is only not going to impact the price of games or consoles because the Pentagon has deep enough pockets to pay for developing this technology the way they want to go with it. If combat simulation training makes our fighting men and women better prepared to handle the reality of being in a war, then we should all be for that - the better they are prepared, the more likely their chances for survival. No, this will not make IEDs go away or less hazardous, but it will help soldiers develop the reflexes needed in a combat environment, and it will help them in the field when they need to be sharp and decisive. That is where the military sees value in these game systems.

  10.8.2007 05:09 #34

• ZippyDSM

  WindHawk
  Sorry some people have a life and cant spend their time prefect the lil things,if you want to be a grammar nazi go right ahead some people prefer to smell the roses and enjoy life and don't worry abotu the lil things since most people if they stop and read and try and use their minds a bit then they can understand what someone else is saying without getting anal or elitist on them.
  
  As for the comment, its called sarcasm, do you comprehend it?

  10.8.2007 05:18 #35

• WindHawk

  Originally posted by WindHawk: This part of this message is for all the people out there that can't spell - learn. If you can master technology, you can spell english words. It is not cute, cool, hip, or smart to butcher the language; it just makes you look ignorant and foolish. Texting abbreviations belong in text messages, not here where you should be understood.
  
  In regard to the comments about soldiers getting to play games, here's a news flash - computer combat simulations have been used by the military for about ten years now. If you really had a finger on the pulse of this subject you would already know this.
  
  The stupidity of comments such as Quote: It is true Bush is sending our troops to Iraq for no reason and they are getting blown up by suicide car bombers. Bush needs to go back to working at Jiffy Lube or something. is appalling. One should try to educate oneself before opening the mouth and letting their lack of information be exposed for the world to see. Stop buying all the media has for sale and ask a real soldier why troops are in Iraq before shooting your mouth off. Besides, this is a technology forum and not a political one. Sorry if this seems like flames, but this kind of stuff is all over the web, and it just makes you look like a twelve year old when you spout off about things you don't know about, especially when you write so poorly.
  
  In regard to this thread, the military is right to be interested in the gaming platforms because of the graphics resolution and the realistic motion that these consoles can produce. If you have ever seen the simulations that are in use and have been used to train our forces, they do look quite artificial and the way the images move on screen is not natural. That is why the military is interested in these systems, not so they can play games. The military use of this technology is only not going to impact the price of games or consoles because the Pentagon has deep enough pockets to pay for developing this technology the way they want to go with it. If combat simulation training makes our fighting men and women better prepared to handle the reality of being in a war, then we should all be for that - the better they are prepared, the more likely their chances for survival. No, this will not make IEDs go away or less hazardous, but it will help soldiers develop the reflexes needed in a combat environment, and it will help them in the field when they need to be sharp and decisive. That is where the military sees value in these game systems.
  

  Hawk That Rides The Cold Wind

  10.8.2007 10:21 #36

• voyager

  Quote:Originally posted by DXR88: There are no games for it because the developement kit has not yet reached third party programmer. And i really, for the love of america, hope in gods name that the military is not going to use the PS3 for anything other than basic combat sim. if they startlaunching
  projectile such as missiles with it. it will be come a terrerist's wet dream.
  
  it would be just as bad as giving them are weapons Like are M16A2
  wait we already did that oh well,Ya remember the whole PS2 BS years back this is not quite a good thing ><
  
  The PS3 is a beast and might offer 50% more power than the 360 once its gets fully optimized but until then every other game will work well on it.
  
  and sony will probably go threw 3 more revisions before settling on 1 for the long haul....
  Both console are going to perform almost identical you exagerate the percent saying 50% more powerful.

  10.8.2007 12:54 #37

• DXR88

  Im not a sony fan. Im a Gamer. The ps3 When and if the code becomes effecient you would see a 10% increase in overall Ability of the PS3. and yes 50 percent increase is a bit over kill.

  11.8.2007 08:30 #38