Unfortunately Sony’s latest firmware removing OtherOS support puts the US Air Force’s plans in potential jeopardy, because they use Linux.
”We will have to continue to use the systems we already have in hand,” the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, NY told Ars Technica. Initially they linked up 336 PS3 consoles for a test cluster, and reached 53 teraFLOP.
This excited the lab and so they stuck Sony with a 2,200 order for more PlayStation 3s. Thanks to the videogames industry always wanting the best of hardware and low prices, game consoles make an ideal tool for advancing scientific research.
In the end it was far cheaper and more efficient for the US Air Force to choose PS3 over many alternatives like ”the Sony BCU-100, IBM Blade Q22, and IBM PowerXCell 8i CAB accelerators cards,” they said. Of course the PS3s operate with Linux on them.
No more OtherOS support ”will make it difficult to replace systems that break or fail. The refurbished PS3s also have the problem that when they come back from Sony, they have the firmware (gameOS) and it will not allow Other OS, which seems wrong.”
”We are aware of class-action lawsuits against Sony for taking away this option on systems that use to have it,” added the lab. Looks like the US Air Force wouldn’t mind applying some pressure of their own to get Sony to reinstate the feature.
Watch those skies Sony.
