you say that, but don't PS2 and PS3 make ideal compute nodes for some
applications like rendering and 3D and 4D (time as the 4th) ?
I doubt it. while gaming consoles are admirably commoditized (actually
sold at a loss in some cases), they're designed with constraints different
from a cluster. for instance, looking pretty, or working well in a
livingroom environment. or playing music, or reading hd-dvd's, etc.
as render nodes, I don't think they're all that good, though perhaps
effective for the price. I would guess that for rendering, you would do
the very best to use last-gen cards in the $150 range. should be able to
put two in a machine - sli support not necessary. such cards have probably
had a respin to give them smaller/cooler chips, as well.
I'd guess that the ethernet in gaming consoles is also not great.
Xboxes make good web servers for small scale. and use less energy than a
equivalent Piii or P4 system :-)
gross. webserving is so easy that tiny embedded chips to a good job,
and something like a via low-power would do a great job. 95% of a game
console would be wasted as a webserver.
end desktop. it's just risen in the gaming market because people want
games
which need greater computational power. likewise with gaming computers,
they
unclear. the gaming market is driven by eyecandy, and I sometimes wonder
whether, for instance, humans can even see jaggies at 60 fps. so much of
the gamer market is driven by what game-geek sites say about blowups of
stills of particular frames.
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