PS3: Now what do we do with it?
 

It seems I was the last person to notice that the ps3 has been hacked, and it is now possible to get linux onto one. That set me thinking of putting one to work in a project next year if I can find a way to do it. I'm more a hardware guy than software, but software is there.

/Begin random ps3 stuff
Gitbrew's other OS loader hack

Now the ps3 is a very interesting piece of kit
PS3 Specs

ppc @3.2Ghz & excuse the Gobbledygook "7 SIMD GPRs" (Single Instruction Multi Data) performing the same instruction on multiple pieces of data. But we are a little challenged for ram outside the caches - 256MB, although what's there is crazy fast.

And that's before I mention some nvidia gpu at a meagre 700Mhz with it's own 256MB of ram. All I/O is likewise high speed.
/End random ps3 stuff

My first thought was that if the 7 (+1 spare) simd things could be made to function as password checkers, You could be able to check multiple passwords simultaneously, upping the attack requirements in a DDOS attack if these were in the way.

There seems to be an unparalleled amount of math/rendering/shading type hardware there. I don't often say this, but I'm looking for a good idea.

Hmmm.
I looked at this a couple (few ???) years ago. I don't give a rat arse about gaming, but was interested for Linux/parallel processing. IBM had a compiler, looked good.
Then it all fell in a heap - the programming was too hard for what I wanted, and then the cell processor was "end-of-life".

I'll wait for the next iteration - and see if Sony get their head out of their arse re public licenses compared to their recent pronouncements.

AFAIK, there's no driver for that video card, although someone was working on one. As for the Core, it's not as great as they claim, but plenty powerful nonetheless.

I was just gonna use it for playing mkv videos on my TV ... but I don't think it can even do that (video card driver).

I wasn't looking at the making video, unless you grab the gpu to do some real processing. looking at the specs, it's a brain box, with graphics in mind. All that stuff is math oriented.

I was looking at something really to use the simd thing, as it seemed an interesting toy. I don't actually need a compiler, because I can do stuff in assembler, if the task is small enough. Math is hell in assembler, btw. But there is copy&paste. And as a project it doesn't have to be mainstream.

I felt the way forward would be an ssh terminal for user i/o. I always felt sony underspecc'ed the hardware in their psx; I did a comprehensive comparison of ps1 & nintendo's 64 bit offering of the time, and the nintendo box was clearly superior h/w. But in a game, the ps1 won hands down, largely because of better graphics, s/w support and i/o. This is serious hardware - so serious it's difficult to employ. As for Sony taking their heads out of their backsides, I think that's a forlorn hope :-/.

If it can do math well, use it for encryption, decryption, etc. Maybe folding@home or SETI or something. Anything that require raw processing power. You can ever make a decent server out of it.

Folding@home?? Whassat?

SETI is not for me. I think I have all the answers anyone needs, and SETI imho is not going to receive anything. Everyone to their own, of course.

I didn't see it as a server - low ram. Encryption/decryption is the thing, but from the research I've done that's far too big a bite for me at this stage.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

I know, I don't care about SETI, either. I think it's a waste of CPU cycles, but maybe you do ... I guess not.