1) Message boards : The Lounge : What the heck is Sony up to? (Message 9538) Posted 12 Apr 2007 by Paul Modzelewski Post: 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.

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