US Air Force orders up 2,200 more PS3s -- for thinking, not gaming
By Vlad Savov 
posted November 25th 2009 5:39AM
posted November 25th 2009 5:39AM
We were as surprised as anyone when the USAF threw down the cash for 300-odd PlayStation 3s back in March of last year, but what's more shocking is that it's now back for more -- seven times more, in fact. Already employing its PS3 cluster for research into high-def video processing, the Air Force Research Lab wants to expand its capabilities significantly and it seems that Sony's Cell processor is still its weapon of choice. We would use this opportunity to make a few jibes about lazy engineers upgrading their setups in time for Modern Warfare 2, but we're better than that. We'll also totally avoid noting that the US government's skimping on costs now is leading it to commit to an instruction set tailored specifically to the Cell processor, which contrary to the latest Xeons -- pricier though they may be -- is not guaranteed to keep updating in pace with the USAF's needs. Those are things we'll leave for someone who isn't afraid of death lasers and autonomous attack drones to say.
@exNewt
That's good. At least you have job security.
@Why should I have all the fun
-Fucking Owned
Better to send the tax payers dollars overseas then to spend in country?
hello ..
@ Willen - LOL ;) yes it does only everything !
the PS3 is a cheap and available alternative!
& if someday in the future, no more war (yeah in my dreams! ha!) .. they can still play war on MW2 hehe ...
poor soldiers, forced to play games ... i pity them ;)
yet if they can make good use of it, why not!
cheers!
I'm actually in the process of joining the Air Force so this shit is badass!
@xBeRx what's your AFSC?
alternatively, they could just buy cell bladeservers from IBM... but hey, why not get them from the source that sells them with 3/4 of the SPEs available instead of, you know, 4/4.
Being that Linux can be ran on a PS 3 I don't think there's going to be a problem with the operating side of things for the Government.
@Zuato Ironically, you can't run linux on the new PS3s... just the XMBC default stuff
*scratches head* But, if IBM announced they're stopping the production of cell processing, would it be wise to purchase a dead end product? Dang, there I go confusing wisdom and government again.
gotta love it when even the usaf tries to save a buck r two, even though they are the biggest spenders in the military. ps3 is a essentialy a fully functional cell-based computer, why have to build it urself when sony will do it for below cost :) . and yes the department of energy could use their custom chip manufacturing plant in los alamaos to make some crazy chip but why?
and im just betting that given the computing power that the government has, that they can put linux and watever the hell else they want on a ps3.
and hey they might even get to play a game r two, i'd rather fly a predator or a raptor but that's just me
i hope the purchasers wait until black friday to spend my money. here's a tip.... dell will have 20% live cashback!
This sounds bizarre, but their must be perfectly logical explanation.
Game on ? Or I mean process on ? Or something Like that :P
@Diesel1313
The USAF is considered to be the primary research/science branch of the military. They probably do the most scientific research out of all the branches, so buying more computing power isn't odd in the least. Even beyond that, they do a lot with the computing and technology side of the military (including space-bound operations), so their use of computers extends even beyond research.
I don't know why everyone assumes the USAF will just be having MW2 parties everynight. Well, I guess I do, since this is Engadget. I guess not many at least try to learn something about the military outside of their "experience" on Counter Strike.
i guess they're buyin those ps3 ..not to giv the soldiers sum fun time.. its because the processor that works in the ps3 is comparable to that of a supercomputer... its not because its super fast but because it serves 1 process at a time but with all tis computational power, which is what super computers do.. they might be using the chipsets dat run the ps3 to develop some computer of sort.
@tush9876
thanks for having to foresight to know that some of us would like to read the original article but didn't want to be bothered by proper grammar and usage of English, so thus you restated it in your own, special, way... go to school, stop sleeping through English class
@(Unverified)
"i think they gone mad after killing Innocent Afghan during current crusades"
Dumbass.
@Vanillacide
Cells work together in a special way. That scaling was part of the hype, though I realize it's there for other tech. If the AF already has something in place, it's probably not too hard to just add to it, quickly, so this is probably much cheaper than starting a new system from scratch.
also, they are buying fat consoles that run linux.
I must be missing something here.
They could buy a whole lot of dual quad core xeon boxes for $440k (estimate cost of the PS3s)...
@(Unverified)
PS3 has 9 cores and blu-ray... pc with tohose specs would cost a lot and be still slower I guess.
@(Unverified)
ps3 has 9 cores... bluray etc...
@(Unverified)
And get a fraction of the SP floating-point performance.
@pankomputerek I take it people still think those cores are directly compareable to cores in other architectures? Sigh.
I wish I could get the one saying U.S. Air Force...
Considering that everything the USAF buys from supplies is marked up over 200%, buying these PS3s is nothing to them. Cheaper than the F-22 Program and JSF :)
Anyone remember remember when Sadam H. bought PS version 1 processors for his Weapontry? That was the rumor back then in the 90s.
Greetings Professor Falken....
Skynet...
i will suggest Xbox as joystick controller is more comfortable then PS3 and you can play longer.
@(Unverified)
they're probably struck a bargain with sony on using their magic wand and some sdks. or could it be that they're onto something like pre-skynet and the psn
@Vanillacide
Older version did support linux and there are a lot of freelancing console hackers out there doing a lot of mods and hacks... I'm sure AF engineers would find a way to make hackinPS3 for their purpose. Oh would find a way to tinker with it to downgrade it
@(Unverified)
You can go die in a hole if you want to disrespect those brave men and women who choose to lay down their lives everyday for the greatest country in the world. We have problems because of people like you. The military doesn't kill innocents, and you're a horribly twisted tool if you'd think otherwise. Regardless of where you live, you should be honored that those soldiers protect all of us, including scum like you.
Dude everyone knows they only did it because they heard Saddam was doint it with TWO hundred units. They wanted to be able to build a "Saddam's-PS3-Supercluster-Buster" in the fine traditions of ULTRA and probably something to do with ECHELON and not just space simulations or whatever non-ridiculously-hi-res-porn they're not watching in that NOC.
@Maccadude33 go educate yourself ,there is no war on Terror ,it's war for Oil and strategic location,and they killed many Innocents ,go educate yourself too
That AirForce Seal is very cool on the PS3. Hopefully those PS3's won't be crashed in mid-air. I kind of remember the promotional vid of PS3 last time crashing to bravia tv-sets...
http://bit.ly/ps3-crashes-to-hd-bravia-best
Modern Warfare II for the win.. LOL
@Ahmed
Go educate myself... well that's ironic coming from you, given that you can't seem to use your punctuation properly. You really haven't got a clue, have you? Ah, it's pointless wasting time debating such things over the internet, since I know you wouldn't argue such things face-to-face. It is true that there were plenty of things that should have been dealt with better over the course of the war, and perhaps in the beginning, but nevertheless, the war exists, and you'd be a fool to deny it and ignore it. But then again, you're already doing just that, so I won't waste more of my breath.
It's a cheap scenario that will get very expensive. If Cell development stops, and the Air Force's software gets built to the Cell's architecture, guess what happens next? The US government buys the Cell and continues development on its own. Happens pretty frequently with military technology, most recently with bulletproof materials that were getting too expensive to develop by private enterprise.
Erm...Wouldn't upgradeability be a problem though? Whenever a IT department makes a decision on what processors to get, they look at future upgradeability and product paths. With PS3's though, once they are outdated they would have to throw them out (or game on them!) once the tech is outdated.