News - Former RARE employee claims Xbox 360's GPU could save parallel computing resea

[HEXUS]

A new study shows that the Xbox 360's GPU could be used in parallel computing.

Read more.

[Fraz]

Not meaning to be rude to the guy (it sounds like good medical research), but why is it a surprise that certain calculations can be done very fast on a GPU these days? Since there are already two GPU-programming frameworks out there, do we really need a third one just for 2005-era ATI GPU computing on an xbox?

My guess is that events have overtaken this guy a bit since he first started out on what in ~2006 must have been a fairly original idea, and now more convenient mechanisms exist with which to do GPU-based science... and on much more powerful graphics hardware.

[darkghost]

...and how long has the folding client been out for the PS3 now?

[Fraz]

...and how long has the folding client been out for the PS3 now?

Ah... but isn't that subtly different, as it makes use of the cell processor (i.e. main CPU) rather than the PS3 GPU? Or am I wrong about that?

[darkghost]

Ah... but isn't that subtly different, as it makes use of the cell processor (i.e. main CPU) rather than the PS3 GPU? Or am I wrong about that?

Not sure - I think my point was kinda geared more towards the fact that a folding client has been out on the PS3 for a while now and there has been nothing for the Xbox. So RARE are hyping about doing something in parallel that nobody has even bothered to do using a single thread of the 360 yet. The whole point of this research approach is the user base that makes up the numbers!

[JimmyBoy]

all sounds really good and way too intelligent for me! but lets hope those gpu's dont red ring eh!

[Singh400]

Good stuff. The Cell gave folding a massive boost when everyone installed clients. Yay for raw power.

[Funkstar]

I think it is more a paper on the theories behind the simulation and how it can be run on both commodity hardware and the parallel nature of GPUs, rather than specific software on the 360.