Tokyo (Japan) - Guiness World Records has officially claimed Folding@Home as the most powerful distributed computing network in the world.

Folding@Home is a scientific research project kickstarted by Stanford University to help study diseases using highly ambitious computer models.  Playstation 3 users have helped by contributing the console's power to the project when it is in idle mode.

Sony says that over 670,000 PS3 consoles have registered to join the Folding@Home network, bringing the total amount of computing power to the program at over one petaflop (one million gigaflops).

Stanford said it appreciates the help of the PS3 users in lending valuable computing power to the university.  "To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful," said F@H project leader and Stanford University chemistry professor Vijay Pande.

Approximately 200,000 PC users have also signed up to contribute idle computing power to the project.