Chelmsford (MA) – If you are planning to do a lot more with the Playstation 3 than playing games, then here is an opportunity to use the console as a high-performance computing platform.

Mercury Systems said that it has releases its "MultiCore Plus SDK for PS3 - Base Package" just ahead of Siggraph and will follow up with a more elaborate version on August 6. Provided you have not just casual development experience, Mercury promises that the kit offers the tools to dive into the processing power of the Cell processor in an “affordable” way and simplify the transition to multi-core programming for developers.

According to the company, the SDK will run (YellowDog) Linux on the PS3 without overhead, data movement and computation automatically, and fine-tune application performance. Included in the $399 per seat software is a trace analysis tool, which monitors dynamic multiprocessor and multi-core interactions and detects performance bottlenecks and visualizes deadlocks (both functions require an x86 PC as host.)

Pricing for the upcoming “MultiCore Plus SDK for PS3 - Scientific Algorithm Library Add-on Package” has not been announced. However, Mercury promises the software to include “over 600 functions for use in compute intensive applications” and “over 100 image and signal processing functions optimized specifically for the Cell architecture.”

The Playstation 3 has been at the center of third party applications virtually from the beginning of its release. The Folding@Home PS3 project, announced back in March of thsi year, has emerged as one of the most popular third-party and supercomputing uses for the platform.

Super Gaming AND Computing

Aug 03, 2007 12:45     

Micro$oft should take heed. The PS3 train is barreling down the track and picking up some serious steam. The HexBox 360 will have to undergo some major revisions before it can compare.
PCWhizKid report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

forgot Rapid Mind?

Aug 03, 2007 12:50     

Rapid Mind is already providing the SDK for the cell CPU. Maybe the Mercury kit is a lot cheaper? How about the training and learning curve?
Anoop Thomas report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I guess...

Aug 03, 2007 13:39     

It's nice to get a fast system for a decent price... and you can watch Blu-Ray discs. No games for the console though. As a gamer, myself, I think I'll code games for the other consoles that have released game development platforms.
CGomez report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Increasing Sony's losses

Aug 05, 2007 20:41     

Surely Sony can't be happy about this ... if they are subsiding the console to make game sales, then each console sold for this purpose increases their loss! Ouch! This is one part of the market where Microsoft probably wants to encourage people to use PS3’s…
rob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

you lose some and you gain some.

Aug 06, 2007 02:55     

Yes, Sony does lose money on each console they sell. but how many people will just buy the console and no games? even if someone intends to buy the console for this purpose they will end up buying a game and some blu-ray movies as well.
Keith report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0