Help Wanted: Playstation 3 Porter

[Sir Ulli]

so the PS3 is going to Seti

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=45266#711268

Greetings from Germany
Sir Ulli

[eaglescouter]

Only if someone with the necessary skills volunteers and then does the job. It's a bit too early to celebrate.

[Careface]

Hot dang, if they ever do get a PS3 client together.. Itll be the reason I buy a PS3 :) probably the only reason, too.

Might play the odd game of FFVII on it though. And FFX. Both great games.. only ever got to play them at my mates place, as I never owned a console past the MegaCD and 32X lol.

Anyone here a qualified PS3 coder? xP

Hey, would could get the folding guys at stanford to make us a client LOL

[Roisen]

I really wish I knew a decent coding language. All I have under my belt are HTML and CSS (if CSS is even considered a programing language on it's own). I would love to help on a project like this, but I just.. can't.

I need to get cracking on PHP and C++

[benbaked]

Any word on this?

[Careface]

From what Ive been reading, it hasnt been given up on, but it is.. not exactly high on the priority list. Not due to lack of demand, but due to lack of knowledge coding in the particular language that the PS3 uses.. Shame really, if SETI did come to PS3.. wow the RAC would absolutely EXPLODE.. in a good way :)

[benbaked]

From what Ive been reading, it hasnt been given up on, but it is.. not exactly high on the priority list. Not due to lack of demand, but due to lack of knowledge coding in the particular language that the PS3 uses.. Shame really, if SETI did come to PS3.. wow the RAC would absolutely EXPLODE.. in a good way :)

Yeah, I read some people were using the SETI PPC client in linux on the PS3, but the RAC wasn't that great since it didn't utilize the SPEs, I can't remember exact numbers though. A while back I was running SETI on a couple of G5s in OS X at work and I was thoroughly impressed with the RAC they were putting out, I was getting almost 1k RAC out of a Dual 2 GHz G5 with Alex Kan's G5 v8 client. I'd love to see what kind of RAC a PS3 could put out with a client that could fully utilize the capabilities of the Cell. :)

Tonight, I think I'll try installing BOINC onto my PS3's linux install just to see what kind of RAC I can get out of it. The curiosity has got to me, my G5s were pretty good crunchers, so even though the current client only uses the PPC element of the Cell I'd think it should still (in theory) put out a somewhat decent RAC at 3.2 GHz.

EDIT: I found a thread here (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=39910) that'll get me started. I'm looking forward to trying this.

[David]

Can they not get Sony on board? They've already pitched in with the Folding@Home PS3 project and I'm sure they could use yet another group of computer enthusiasts buying a PS3 for distributed computing :)

[Careface]

Yeah, I read some people were using the SETI PPC client in linux on the PS3, but the RAC wasn't that great since it didn't utilize the SPEs, I can't remember exact numbers though. A while back I was running SETI on a couple of G5s in OS X at work and I was thoroughly impressed with the RAC they were putting out, I was getting almost 1k RAC out of a Dual 2 GHz G5 with Alex Kan's G5 v8 client. I'd love to see what kind of RAC a PS3 could put out with a client that could fully utilize the capabilities of the Cell. :)

Tonight, I think I'll try installing BOINC onto my PS3's linux install just to see what kind of RAC I can get out of it. The curiosity has got to me, my G5s were pretty good crunchers, so even though the current client only uses the PPC element of the Cell I'd think it should still (in theory) put out a somewhat decent RAC at 3.2 GHz.

EDIT: I found a thread here (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=39910) that'll get me started. I'm looking forward to trying this.

Ahh, good stuff. Id be interested to know how it goes as well. You hear about "other" people getting average RACs on whatever build they have, but I always consider OCFs populous to be what I would consider "the benchmark". Not sure why, I guess it could be the fact I know the people in this community actually know what they're doing.

Can they not get Sony on board? They've already pitched in with the Folding@Home PS3 project and I'm sure they could use yet another group of computer enthusiasts buying a PS3 for distributed computing :)

Well.. that would be awesome if we could get Sony in on it. Though.. I have a feeling I know why they pitched in with the F@H project. Try to keep this on the <font size=-4>, but Im sure its cause F@H is generally considered to be for a "worthier" cause than SETI. I can just see a major company going "Hey look, we are helping find a cure for cancer!" more than saying "Umm.. we are.. err, trying to find aliens :)".

Shame really, Id <3 a PS3 client. Id actually go out and buy a PS3 purely for that.

[QuietIce]

Unfortunately, that is the view of the general public about SETI. :(

I like the speech Dr. Arrowway (Jodie Foster) gives in the movie Contact at her meeting with the Hadden Industries board - one of my favorite scenes. Too bad most people didn't really listen to it ... :-/

[benbaked]

Unfortunately many of the links I came across to download are not working, the ones for the alpha seti PS3 client in the link I'd posted don't work, and boinc.berkeley.edu isn't working right now either. Looks like I'm at a dead end, may as well reboot into the XMB and play some GT5:P.