[geeks] PS/3's, Linux, etc, was: Second Life is not a game?

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Aug 1, 2007, at 4:02 AM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

>
>
>> If you've laid down a big chunk of cash on a large box to run
>> computational tasks on, buying a PS3 for the associated developers
>> makes a lot of sense.
>
> I don't understand (yes I'm being exceptionally thick here), if it
> is just computational tasks, besides (not) being big endian what is  
> the
> difference between a PC running 64 bit Linux and a PS/3?
>

I have a client who used the GPU compiler to perform certain  
numerically intensive tasks, and compared the time taken (wall time)  
vs. a Xeon 5355, which is the second-fastest Intel chip you can buy.

The GPU on the Nvidia 8800, for the tasks he was doing, was 10 to 15  
times faster than the Xeon.

The Cell processor has the potential to give similar gains.

Of course this is a niche market.

Cordially

Patrick Giagnocavo
patrick at zill.net