Stanford University's Folding@Home project, which puts personal computers to work studying the complicated process of protein folding, could soon get a big boost from an unlikely direction. Starting this month, owners of Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game console will be able to take part in the research project when they're not busy playing games.
Researchers have recruited about 200,000 desktop machines to participate in the project, which has implications for medical science. But the officials are bullish about PlayStations, according to Scientific American, because the gaming devices actually perform some simulations faster than most computers.
Will PlayStation players use Folding@Home? Stanford and Sony hope to provide an incentive to do so: They have designed software for the console that lets users watch the protein-folding simulations in real time. –Brock Read
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