Hi all,

I just read this rather vague announcement from Sony about the creation of a commercial distributed computing venture based on the PS3. It looks like they plan to sell the cycles on the open market and entice users with digital “tchotchkes” for the PS3.

Are they planning to use the BOINC software to create an independent, commercial BOINC system?

From what I gather, it looks like they are creating a hybrid of volunteer computing and desktop grid computing. Sony has some locks on the hardware for DRM purposes, so each machine is partially trusted, but they still have to entice users with their own spin on “credit”.

If my initial assumptions are close to reality, is this seen as a threat to BOINC and Volunteer Computing, or a natural progression towards the day when processing power is traded on speculative markets like other commodities?

Sorry if this is old hat.

That sounds similar to this: http://www.imilly.com/kazaa.htm (read it all, the important info is almost at the bottom).

Yeah right, after the CD debacle I'm going to trust SONY software on any DRM locked down platform.

They'll be skating down there first. ;-)

Alinator

Linux can run on the PS3, now all we need is somebody to figure a way to run Linux on it and still be able to play games. Then people who don't want that computing crap or DRM crap can just never run the official OS again :P