Kutaragi was right! The PLAYSTATION 3 is a supercomputer. No, really. Using eight PS3s, North Carolina State University's Dr. Frank Mueller created a supercomputing cluster capable of high-performance crunching. His total cost? US $5,000. He explains:

Clusters are not new to the computing world. Google, the stock market, automotive design companies and scientists use clusters, but this is the first academic computing cluster built from PLAYSTATION 3s...

Scientific computing is just number crunching, which the PS3s are very good at given the Cell processor and deploying them in a cluster.

Mueller reckons that clustering 10,000 PS3s would create the fastest computer in the world — One with somewhat limited networking and capabilities. And what about Mueller's cluster? It's been used since January 3rd at NC State for education purposes and research. Brian Ashcraft

Super Computing PS3s [Physorg.com, Thanks Tim!]

Contact information for this author is not available.