Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Vijay Pande, creator of the Folding@home project, which harnesses the power of networked Playstation3s across the world to carry out essential research into Alzheimer’s Disease, has revealed to Pro-G that the 360 is of limited help to his work.
After being asked if he thought the power of the 360 could be useful, he said: “Possibly, although the cell processor in the PS3 is much more powerful for our calculations than the CPU in the Xbox 360.”
Giving details of how the power of the Playstation3 was useful to his research, Pande explained: “We are simulating key processes in protein folding and misfolding in Alzheimer’s Disease. PS3’s are performing aspects of these simulations, and doing so about 20 times faster than a typical PC.”
The program has seen a strong uptake by PS3 owners with more than 250,000 unique users having registered, delivering nearly 400 teraflops of computing power. Total computing power at a single moment is now recorded at 700 teraflops, more than double the capacity of the network before PlayStation 3 joined the program.
There is still no word on any plans for the folding@home project to embrace the Xbox 360, but we’re sure that many Xbox 360 owners would be more than willing to help out such a good cause.
