Mark, You seam to be making an awful lot of assumptions about what a game console can or can't do. Let's have some facts rather than vague guesswork.
As I understand it the PS3 has a decent GigE port, it runs a standard Linux OS, YDL, and it has both a general purpose CPU, (Power5) and 6 (I think) cell processors. I would have thought a repetitive application like rendering would be ideal for a cell based system. I do not understand your reference to SLI cards. I do agree that a PS2 is probable not a good render node, but then again it's ~4 years old. Regards Robin >> 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. > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > Robin Harker Workstations UK Ltd DDI: 01494 787710 Tel: 01494 724498 _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
