Remember when the Cell processor hype was at a high, and people were saying how some PS3’s can do incredible things like cure cancer. Well the latter is partly true.
Sony offered PS3 gamers to connect to Folding@Home and crunch some numbers while their system was idle, and while it was a great thing, only a fraction of PS3 users tried it out. Still that’s a lot, totaling to almost 15 million consoles.
The PS3 will get a new firmware update 3.40 in which the app will be finally disabled, and I don’t think people are going to make a big deal out of it like they did with the Linux removal.
“The PS3 system was a game changer for Folding@Home, as it opened the door for new methods and new processors, eventually also leading to the use of GPUs,” revealed Vijay Pande, who is the research lead at Stanford for Folding@Home.
“We have had numerous successes in recent years. Specifically, in a paper just published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, we report on tests of predictions from earlier Folding@Home simulations, and how these predictions have led to a new strategy to fight Alzheimer’s disease.
“The next steps, now underway at Stanford, are to take this lead compound and help push it towards a viable drug. It’s too early to report on our preliminary results there, but I’m very excited that the directions set out in this paper do appear to be bearing fruit in terms of a viable drug (not just a drug candidate).”
