The vast majority of the technology-related notices in FedBizOps are pretty standard: hardware purchases and requests for information for new security software. Occasionally you'll see a notice about a bigger upcoming project.
But every now and then I see something that causes a double-take. Such as this solicitation from Monday, in which the Air Force announces they are looking for a vendor to sell them 2,200 Playstation 3 gaming consoles.
Now for disclosure's sake, I own a Playstation 3 and it's a powerful piece of machinery. It comes with a Blu Ray player and it makes Madden that much more enjoyable on an HDTV. But judging by the accompanying documents, the Air Force has no intention of shipping these consoles to the nearest base for the enjoyment of local airmen:
The new PS3s will be placed in a cluster environment with an existing cluster of 336 PS3s by connecting each of the units' one gigabit Ethernet port to a common 24 port gigabit hub. Once the hardware configuration is implemented, software code will be developed in-house for cluster implementation utilizing a Linux-based operating software. Commercial as well as in-house developed software code specific to these cell processor architectures will be studied. The objective of the architectural studies is to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications. An example would be determining additional software and hardware requirements for Advanced Computing Architectures (ACA) and High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) applications.
I've reached out to the Air Force to ask how they plan on using the devices but they have not responded yet. It's worth noting that this isn't the first time the government has looked to harness the power of the commercial gaming console. Apparently the best way to replace aging supercomputers may be with a trip to your local mall.
COMMENTS
This is not the first time a DoD lab has followed behind academia and industry. The whole PlayStation-as-cluster thing is older than the seven hills. The way to build and program such things is well documented in the literature.
"Aging super computers"? Super computers owned by DoD under the High Performance Computing Management Office are far from aging. They are modern and kept well up to date, and they are open to new users.
There is no need for this waste of funds to purchase yet another system. DoD labs should be pushing the cutting edge, not following far behind it.
Jack Simmons 11/23/09 10:59 am ET
A professor at UMASS Dartmouth got a grant last year to string eight PS3 together and build a supercomputer. Supposedely they have acheived remarkable results and the cost is 1/10 of what a comparable purchased model would be from IBM or Cray. Due a query on it, there are plenty of articles out there.
This is awesome and scary at the same time, the ability to crunch huge numbers without having ultra-sophisicated equipment is starting to become available to almost anyone who has a little extra discretionary funds. The implications are that they might be used for beneficial purposes such as tracking astrological events but probably will get used for more sinister purposes like hyrdrodynamic modeling exescerbating nuclear non-proliferation issues. The Iranians were caught trying to purchase thousands of PS2 systems (though not as powerful) in 2005 to achieve this very objective.
Defender of the Free World 11/22/09 03:13 pm ET
Sony sells the PS3 cheap to get you to buy games. In this case they will be used on deadly serious stuff, and saving money.
jim van damme 11/19/09 08:17 am ET
If NASA can harness the power of "volunteer" PC's chained together to track star activity over the internet, why is this so unusual? Because it's the Air Force?
JF 11/19/09 08:03 am ET
i think sony still sells the ps3 at a loss (since they plan to make money off future game purchases, etc). I think that's kind of interesting since sony would be losing money in this mass purchase. but i suppose the promotion they get from this is probably worth it.
shahryar 11/18/09 09:36 pm ET
The PS3 contains an extremely powerful system with EIGHT processors and very high speed Rambus XDR memory. So 300 of them would contain 2,400 processing units. It also has a spectacularly powerful display system (although I am not sure how one would use more than a few of these). They are also sold at a cost that is FAR below what you would otherwise pay for this level of power, since the "normal" intent is to more or less breakeven (or even incur a slight loss) on each unit and make it up later with the royalties on the various game software normally used on the unit. For certain applications, properly implemented in software, this may be both the most powerful and the most cost effective hardware one could acquire. It would be interesting to know what the air force is using these for. It might also be classified.
Barry Watzman 11/18/09 08:55 pm ET