3 ms·

The PS3 was incredible value dollar-to-flop, given that it was sold at a loss. This resulted in universities and other research institutes buying them en masse

by beAbU 7mo ago

The PS3 was incredible value dollar-to-flop, given that it was sold at a loss. This resulted in universities and other research institutes buying them en masse to create supercomputer clusters. Naturally buying thousands of consoles but not a single game puts sony in a difficult position. Although I think it's sad the hardware got locked down in later revisions, I fully understand why they did it.

mschild 7mo ago
The US Department of Defense went quite a bit further. They created the Condor Cluster in 2010 which was comprised of 1760 PS3s. At the time it was placed 33rd worldwide for a supercomputer. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomput...
- extraduder_ire 7mo ago
  At the time, entire PS3s were cheaper than what it cost to get the CPU from IBM.
- genewitch 7mo ago
  at some point it was claimed that the reason sony removed the ability to run linux was because, literally, Saddam Hussein (maybe not) was using them to pilot jets or somesuch.
  - b00ty4breakfast 7mo ago
    I haven't looked, but I am pretty sure that Saddam was dead before the ps3 launched. At the very least, his 2003/2004 ouster was before the ca 2007ish (I think) launch date.
    - b00ty4breakfast 7mo ago
      Ok, I looked it up; Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006 and the ps3 launched on Nov 11, 2006 in Japan and Nov 17, 2006 in the US. So, technically, he was alive for the launch.
      - Intermernet 7mo ago
        That factoid has the ingredients for an awesome conspiracy theory ;-)
        genewitch 7mo ago
        in case you don't check up again, i did find this https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/ https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.nc... And in my mind the whole story was a publicity stunt, considering the political wind at the time and the place that broke the story; which was then quoted at me in college.
    - genewitch 7mo ago
      I said the word claimed. in the past. And it was more like: thousands of PS2 because sony/japan marked them dual use because they "were so powerful." So probably astro-turfed or even native advertising (considering the place that "broke" the story.) buuuuut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster the US government went ahead and did make a supercomputer out of PS3s. anyhow thanks for helping me confirm my memory is functioning perfectly. ETA: https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/ https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.nc... probably where this "wacky" idea came from...
- widowlark 7mo ago
  they couldn't have gone for 1776 of them?
AlphaAndOmega0 7mo ago
I would be curious to know more precise numbers. My intuition suggests that when Sony sells millions of them, the number diverted for non-gaming purposes is maybe thousands or tens of thousands.
- mr_toad 7mo ago
  Nearly 90 million units by the time it was discontinued, but I'm not sure how many were sold at the point they removed Linux support.
monocasa 7mo ago
The marketing win of being able to say "these are so poweful, the military literally uses them in supercomputers" certainly more than makes up for a hundredth of a percent of consoles having a zero attach rate.
- vdvebjrc 7mo ago
  [dead]
ChoGGi 7mo ago
> Although I think it's sad the hardware got locked down in later revisions, I fully understand why they did it. The PS3 was coincidentally locked down after it was jail broken (broken in Jan, otheros patched out in Mar.

by beAbU 7mo ago

mschild 7mo ago

The US Department of Defense went quite a bit further. They created the Condor Cluster in 2010 which was comprised of 1760 PS3s. At the time it was placed 33rd worldwide for a supercomputer. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomput...

extraduder_ire 7mo ago
At the time, entire PS3s were cheaper than what it cost to get the CPU from IBM.
genewitch 7mo ago
at some point it was claimed that the reason sony removed the ability to run linux was because, literally, Saddam Hussein (maybe not) was using them to pilot jets or somesuch.
- b00ty4breakfast 7mo ago
  I haven't looked, but I am pretty sure that Saddam was dead before the ps3 launched. At the very least, his 2003/2004 ouster was before the ca 2007ish (I think) launch date.
  - b00ty4breakfast 7mo ago
    Ok, I looked it up; Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006 and the ps3 launched on Nov 11, 2006 in Japan and Nov 17, 2006 in the US. So, technically, he was alive for the launch.
    - Intermernet 7mo ago
      That factoid has the ingredients for an awesome conspiracy theory ;-)
      - genewitch 7mo ago
        in case you don't check up again, i did find this https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/ https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.nc... And in my mind the whole story was a publicity stunt, considering the political wind at the time and the place that broke the story; which was then quoted at me in college.
  - genewitch 7mo ago
    I said the word claimed. in the past. And it was more like: thousands of PS2 because sony/japan marked them dual use because they "were so powerful." So probably astro-turfed or even native advertising (considering the place that "broke" the story.) buuuuut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster the US government went ahead and did make a supercomputer out of PS3s. anyhow thanks for helping me confirm my memory is functioning perfectly. ETA: https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/ https://web.archive.org/web/20041120084657/http://arrakis.nc... probably where this "wacky" idea came from...
widowlark 7mo ago
they couldn't have gone for 1776 of them?

AlphaAndOmega0 7mo ago

I would be curious to know more precise numbers. My intuition suggests that when Sony sells millions of them, the number diverted for non-gaming purposes is maybe thousands or tens of thousands.

mr_toad 7mo ago
Nearly 90 million units by the time it was discontinued, but I'm not sure how many were sold at the point they removed Linux support.

monocasa 7mo ago

The marketing win of being able to say "these are so poweful, the military literally uses them in supercomputers" certainly more than makes up for a hundredth of a percent of consoles having a zero attach rate.

vdvebjrc 7mo ago
[dead]

ChoGGi 7mo ago

> Although I think it's sad the hardware got locked down in later revisions, I fully understand why they did it. The PS3 was coincidentally locked down after it was jail broken (broken in Jan, otheros patched out in Mar.