Science 2 - Playstation 3 Says It Can Help in Fight To Cure Cancer

This is a startling claim, but totally true. The best way to build a supercomputer is to array 1000's or even 1,000,000's of computers together to combine their computing capability. This is already being done with PC's in an attempt to find other life in the Universe. The new Playstation will be especially good at being so combined with its fellows to do massive computing:

Sony Computer Entertainment says that when Cure@PLAYSTATION 3 is launched, PS3 owners can register their machines with Stanford, download specially designed software and leave their machines online to process data when they're not playing.

It's modeled after existing programs in which personal computers process high-volume data for signs of extraterrestrial life and other tasks. PCs already contribute to the Stanford medical research program.

Sony said data processing time can be up to 20 times faster with a global network of PS3s, which are fitted with advanced Cell processors that can perform billions of calculations per second.

The rest of the article is here.