SGER: Evaluation of the Sony PS3 for projects in computational physics

该奖项资助探索使用索尼PlayStation 3(PS3)游戏机进行引力波物理中的科学计算。如果成功，与传统的Beowulf计算集群相比，这种方法将产生显著更高的成本效益(以每美元的性能衡量)。该项目将重点调查PS3在数值相对论和LIGO数据分析方面的表现。该项目的一部分致力于确定特定的代码和库，这些代码和库需要针对PS3/Cell体系结构进行调整才能很好地执行。作为这项研究的结果，在公开可用源代码中实施的任何Cell处理器特定优化将通过网站免费提供。该项目将探索使用非常低成本的专用硬件，如Sony PS3，将经济高效的Beowulf集群方法新扩展到超级计算的可行性。如果成功，这种方法表明，每美元的表现可能比通过传统手段实现的高出一个数量级以上。因此，该项目显然将对集群计算和科学计算产生重大影响。特别是，如果PS3星系团产生这些好处，对LIGO数据的搜索和引力波来源的模拟可能进入现在不可能实现的计算机密集型区域。

This award funds exploring the use of the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) gaming console for scientific computing in gravitational wave physics. If successful, this approach would yield a significantly higher cost effectiveness (measured as performance per dollar) compared with traditional Beowulf compute clusters. The project will focus on investigating the performance of the PS3 for projects in numerical relativity and LIGO data analysis. Part of the project is dedicated to identifying the specific codes and libraries that will need tuning for the PS3/Cell architecture in order to perform well. Any Cell processor specific optimizations that are implemented in publicly available source code as a result of this study, will be made freely available via a website.This project will explore the feasibility of a novel extension of the cost-effective Beowulf cluster approach towards supercomputing, using very low-cost special purpose hardware, such as the Sony PS3. If successful, this approach suggests that it may be possible to reach a performance per dollar that is over an order of magnitude higher than what can be achieved through traditional means. Thus, this project will clearly have serious implications for cluster computing and scientific computing, in general. In particular, if PS3 clusters yield these benefits, searches of LIGO data and simulations of gravitational wave sources could move into computer intensive regimes not now possible.