Donate computation time ...on your PS3?

OK, so this is a bit of a public service announcement, but I just wanted to give a shout out to anyone with a computer that may be often idle. You know you’re the one if you’ve got a slick new machine and it basically serves as a fancy web browser and text editor with occasional number crunching during the dissertation or that last field report … Consider donating that down time to the World Community Grid.

The World Community Grid has been operating in its current form since November 2005 (you can read about the 2005 launch in the KaiserNetwork archives). They run a few extremely large research efforts on fundamental health science that require extremely large amounts of computer time. You can simply visit WCG, download the secure software, and you’re done. It runs in the background when you’re not using your machine and you contribute to research on genetics, cancer, and HIV. Something to consider anyway. And here’s a link for the kids explaining the science in computational grids.

The really interesting update, as reported in the Washington Post today, that Sony’s PS3 is getting involved in networked computing.

With the next software update for the game console, PS3 owners will be given an option to click an icon for Stanford’s “Folding@home” project and download software that the university has designed to help outsource the computing power of the game consoles (which are essentially computers) needed for some of its research.

The software will run “protein folding” simulations, which help researchers understand why proteins sometimes fold incorrectly and mutate into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Each participating PS3 will periodically download and analyze a chunk of the school’s research, and then upload the results. The software, which is due at the end of the month, will run when the PS3 system is not playing games or performing other multimedia tasks.