Prime Search on PS-3?

Kosmaj · 2006-11-17, 07:35

Well not yet, but I just read that Sony together with Folding@Home have a program to run FH client of PS-3 during its idle time. Read the full story here.

Next step will be to have an LLR client running

And I know a person who maybe can tell us how long does it take to test a million bit prime on PS-3's Cell CPU. Let's see. If this really happens I may join the people waiting in line to get a PS-3

or two :surprised because if the Cell can really deliver a peta-flop it will be by far the best bang for the buck!

Imagine: the first 10M digit prime found by GIMPS on PS-3!

S485122 · 2006-11-17, 09:47

A Petaflop/s is for the supercomputer IBM is building. That supercomputer will use 16 000 "Cell Broadband Engine" chips. One PS3 will have "only" 1/16 000th of a Petaflop/s or 62.5 Gigaflop/s.

Mini-Geek · 2006-11-17, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacob Visser

A Petaflop/s is for the supercomputer IBM is building. That supercomputer will use 16 000 "Cell Broadband Engine" chips. One PS3 will have "only" 1/16 000th of a Petaflop/s or 62.5 Gigaflop/s.

That's still far more than normal CPUs. What I want is a Cell processor on the PC! Imagine the crunching you could do with one of those, and without paying for a whole PS3 when all you want is its processor.

lsoule · 2006-11-17, 17:52

In terms of bang for the buck, this article claims Sony is losing at
least $240 per unit sold and includes this quote

With the PlayStation 3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC," said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=194400596

segmtfault · 2006-11-21, 01:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kosmaj

Next step will be to have an LLR client running

And I know a person who maybe can tell us how long does it take to test a million bit prime on PS-3's Cell CPU. Let's see.

Well I can't provide you these numbers yet as I don't know of anybody having done a LLR port for PS3...

This being said, you are able to run Linux on PS3 (and in fact any 3rd party OS compiled for PS3) by using the "OpenPlatform" feature.

Also soon you'll be able to download Terrasoft's and SCEI's Yellow Dog Linux, which comes with the CellSDK, here is the release schedule and here the announcement

So all it would take (but this will be a significant effort) would be to port LLR's Linux client to use SPUs (as you know this is where the [super

]computing power of the Cell lies).

I found some sample FFT code here, even though this example is single precision only, maybe it could be a good starting point?

Btw IIRC the CellSDK comes with a "Cell simulator" that allows you to run code compiled on Cell on your PC. Of course the performance will be completely different, but I think that's a cool idea to allow anybody to write and test Cell code before they get their hands on the real thing

rogue · 2006-11-21, 14:01

Head over to this thread:

http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthr...2041#post92041

to see the effort being done to do PRP testing on other CPU architectures.

Kosmaj · 2006-11-21, 15:19

Alex, thanks a lot for detailed info.
I can hardly wait to find my first prime on PS3!

When I posted my first message I had no idea that Linux can actually run on PS-3. I remeber 5-6 yrs ago it there was Linux for Sega Dreamcast (a very good architecture at the time), but there wasn't any for PS-1 because Sony didn't like the idea. Since then I stopped following the developments but Alex just informed me that there is one for PS-2.

Sounds attractive and inexpencive! If I read Terrasoft hp correctly they will release YDL for PS-3 on Nov 27 for a fee ($60), and in the week of Dec. 25 for free. Since I don't have PS-3 and it's hard to find a shop selling one I think I'll wait Dec. 25. With gcc we can promptly compile gmp and after that ecm to test factoring. In the meanwhile we can explore the thread suggested by Mark and other resources to see how to port LLR or another prime-searching software on PS.

I also located a small company in Japan getting ready to release (most likely) Linux on PS-3 over there. They already have it running, see a screenshot here.

And for warming-up, docs about Cell.

2006-11-17, 07:35	#1
Kosmaj Nov 2003 2×1,811 Posts	Prime Search on PS-3? Well not yet, but I just read that Sony together with Folding@Home have a program to run FH client of PS-3 during its idle time. Read the full story here. Next step will be to have an LLR client running And I know a person who maybe can tell us how long does it take to test a million bit prime on PS-3's Cell CPU. Let's see. If this really happens I may join the people waiting in line to get a PS-3 or two :surprised because if the Cell can really deliver a peta-flop it will be by far the best bang for the buck! Imagine: the first 10M digit prime found by GIMPS on PS-3!

2006-11-17, 17:52	#4
lsoule Nov 2004 California 2³×3×71 Posts	In terms of bang for the buck, this article claims Sony is losing at least $240 per unit sold and includes this quote With the PlayStation 3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC," said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=194400596

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
MultiFactorial Prime Search	rogue	And now for something completely different	109	2019-06-02 00:21
Twin prime search?	MooooMoo	Twin Prime Search	115	2010-08-29 17:38
Prime Search at School	Unregistered	Information & Answers	5	2009-10-15 22:44
k=51 or about coordinated prime search	Kosmaj	Riesel Prime Search	7	2007-07-13 22:15
Prime Search forum	geoff	Forum Feedback	3	2006-07-26 03:17

2006-11-17, 09:47	#2
S485122 Sep 2006 Brussels, Belgium 3³·61 Posts	A Petaflop/s is for the supercomputer IBM is building. That supercomputer will use 16 000 "Cell Broadband Engine" chips. One PS3 will have "only" 1/16 000th of a Petaflop/s or 62.5 Gigaflop/s.

2006-11-21, 14:01	#6
rogue "Mark" Apr 2003 Between here and the 2·3·13·79 Posts	Head over to this thread: http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthr...2041#post92041 to see the effort being done to do PRP testing on other CPU architectures.

2006-11-21, 15:19	#7
Kosmaj Nov 2003 2·1,811 Posts	Alex, thanks a lot for detailed info. I can hardly wait to find my first prime on PS3! When I posted my first message I had no idea that Linux can actually run on PS-3. I remeber 5-6 yrs ago it there was Linux for Sega Dreamcast (a very good architecture at the time), but there wasn't any for PS-1 because Sony didn't like the idea. Since then I stopped following the developments but Alex just informed me that there is one for PS-2. Sounds attractive and inexpencive! If I read Terrasoft hp correctly they will release YDL for PS-3 on Nov 27 for a fee ($60), and in the week of Dec. 25 for free. Since I don't have PS-3 and it's hard to find a shop selling one I think I'll wait Dec. 25. With gcc we can promptly compile gmp and after that ecm to test factoring. In the meanwhile we can explore the thread suggested by Mark and other resources to see how to port LLR or another prime-searching software on PS. I also located a small company in Japan getting ready to release (most likely) Linux on PS-3 over there. They already have it running, see a screenshot here. And for warming-up, docs about Cell.