Using YDL or other Linuxes on PS3

[OlympicDreamer]

After reading the Article about PS3 being used as a Supercomputer.

I am beginning to think of the possibility of using the Ps3 for the following.

Coding
Web Hosting
MySQL
PHP
etc.. etc..

And yes! They can be done!
I came, I see and I saw what you guys typed.
It's amazing.

But my question is.
Comparing a coporate/enterprise server a regular computer and a ps3.
Would the PS3 be able to host a video streaming website or file down/upload site simultaneously as well as a regular computer or a coporate/enterprise server?
But how much better?
10 times? 20 times? 100 times perhaps?

Since it could be used as a super computer ...
I apologize if another such question has been asked or answered.
I just can't find it.

The cell processor seems very promising but I just don't know the possibilities and limitations of this.
Could someone who is knowledgeable in this plaese enlighten me?

[billb]

But my question is.
Comparing a coporate/enterprise server a regular computer and a ps3.
Would the PS3 be able to host a video streaming website or file down/upload site simultaneously as well as a regular computer or a coporate/enterprise server?
But how much better?
10 times? 20 times? 100 times perhaps?

Maybe 0.5 times as fast? I haven't used my PS3 for those applications, but I think the low memory available (less than 256 MB RAM) and relatively slow hard disk access speed would be limiting factors. Also, for general computing purposes we hardly ever use the full power of the Cell processor -- just the moderately fast dual-threaded PPE core and not the SPEs. When you read articles about the PS3 being used as a "supercomputer" they're likely referring to a cluster of PS3s being used together and taking advantage of the SPEs for a specific purpose for which custom software has been written.

[OlympicDreamer]

that, is a really sad thing.

Giving people less reasons to buy a PS3.

I guess IBM's got something to do with this because they are selling computers too.

[billb]

You are aware that Sony removed OtherOS (Linux) support in the new "slim" PS3 models and later removed OtherOS support for all PS3s with a firmware update, right? The firmware update is optional, but you have to be on the latest firmware to get on PSN, play the latest games, and probably some blu-ray movies, so they forced users to choose between PSN or OtherOS/Linux.

So even if the performance was up to par it still wouldn't make sense to do anything serious / business-related with Linux on PS3 -- when the hardware eventually fails you might have a hard time replacing it with a "phat" PS3 with FW <= 3.15.

Some recent hacking may eventually bring Linux to all PS3 models again, but that's an entirely different subject (see the top sticky post re: "OtherOS removed in Firmware Update 3.21").

[OlympicDreamer]

Do you think the hacking would eventually lead to YDL or any other linux being able to use more or ALL of the cpu cores in the cell processor?

[billb]

Do you think the hacking would eventually lead to YDL or any other linux being able to use more or ALL of the cpu cores in the cell processor?

Yes, they have shown as much already, making one additional SPE available. But the issue is that the SPEs aren't like having additional full CPU cores -- you need to have software written specifically for them. It's not simply a matter of recompiling software for the Cell and enabling the SPEs. Here's a good article about it: http://www.blachford.info/computer/arti ... ming1.html

[OlympicDreamer]

What a pity, I am no super programmer. Neither do i have an army of programmers.
The technology could have been used otherwise...

I would be expecting much from it though ...
The technology used on other than gaming would have brought in BILLIONS