I was geeking out soooo hard when she picked one up because I knew immediately what she was going to do with them! That is a launch version of the Playstation 3. Basically everything they said in the episode when setting up the chain of them is 100% true and US agencies did this. I thought I might just link to some stuff or explain if people were curious. Plus I just wanted to say OMG!
Here’s an actual example of it: http://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html
Basically in 2009/2010 the US Air Force and a lot of other companies actually used PS3s to make supercomputers. Why not Xbox 360s? (The console that was the same generation). Basically Sony spent a wholeeee lot of money on R&D developing this super specialized CPU, it wasn’t like one you find in a normal PC or modern consoles. Which was terrible for game designers, and why games ran better on the 360 etc. Because this CPU was a hassle to program for, it did have amazing capabilities, but only if you took the time to really utilize it though.
The launch PS3s did indeed allow you to install the Linux OS on them (this feature was eventually removed via a firmware update, so the later slim PS3 models wouldn’t be able to do what they wanted to do). And because of the CPUs incredible power if used and programmed for correctly, and ability to link them together etc. Voila! All the CPUs chained makes a supercomputer.
Sorry just wanted to be shout “This is awesome!” This attention to a little detail, they knew would get some people excited! :D
