PS3 Computing Engine at University of Tartu

News

• A news feature on us: http://www.ut.ee/611089
• fall term 2008: My students Lauri Tulmin and Toomas Laasik are actively implementing a conjugate gradient solver with preconditioning for the Cell processor. Links to their progress are here: http://dougdevel.org/ps3/trac
• spring term 2008: Currently we are working in my research lab with them.
• 12.02.2008: We just received 16 ps3 and are installing them, so that they can be used in teaching and research.
• 24.10.2007: I just successfully won a grant for a new Playstation 3 computing engine. We are just ordering them. So we will have soon 16 Sony Playstation 3 computers and explore the power of combining these.

Links

• Two master thesis on research on our playstation cluster.
  • Toomas Laasik: pdf download
  • Lauri Tulmin: pdf download
• Current research: http://dougdevel.org/ps3/trac
• Installation links:
  • Linux for PlayStation 3 on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_3
  • Debian on the PlayStation 3 (Sorry folks, but this will be the way to go, as we use only debian here in our group): http://www.keshi.org/moin/PS3/Debian/Live
  • Minimum Intrusion Grid Live-CD and Documentation: http://mig-1.imada.sdu.dk/MiG/index.html
  • Cell simulator: http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/cellsystemsim
  • Cell sdk download (login required): http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/power/cell/pkgdownloads.html
  • Cell SDK Installation Documentation: http://www-01.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/techdocs/3D3C5B2932876AEB00257353006C179E?Open&S_TACT=105AGX16&S_CMP=LP
• Success stories:
  • physorg.com: Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster: http://www.physorg.com/news92674403.html
  • Astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/10/ps3_supercomputer (same news, other page)
  • Folding@Home on the PS3: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/FAQ-PS3.html
  • http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/28/ps3s_put_to_use_simulating_blackholes/
• Other persons and courses doing something with ps3s:
  • http://www10.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~simastue/
  • MIT Playstation Course: http://cag.csail.mit.edu/ps3/
  • One-Day IBM Cell Programming Workshop at Georgia Tech: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~bader/CellProgramming.html
• Documentation:
  • General Info on PS3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3
  • Programming high-performance applications on the Cell BE processor: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/power/library/pa-linuxps3-1/index.html?S_TACT=105AGX16&S_CMP=EDU
  • Parallel programming on Playstation 3 (Cell architecture) by example: Puzzle solving: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/library/cell_proramming.aspx
  • PS3 processor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor
  • Cell programming with eclipse: https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/pa-cellide30-1/index.html
  • Minimum Intrusion Grid Sandboxes: http://mig-1.imada.sdu.dk/MiG/Mig_english/sandboxes_html
  • Minimum Intrusion Grid in general and LInk to papers: http://mig-1.imada.sdu.dk/MiG/Mig
  • Collected info on ps2dev: http://ps2dev.org

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