XD

Perfectly understandable. It's a gaming war after all, Sony and Microsoft obviously don't get along at all, and F@H is a factor in the war.

Research area and projects should not become the warzone between gaming consoles. The idea just seems ridiculous. Let the 360 in for the sake of getting the help the research desperately needs, but don't let it become an ego thing between the two companies. "Omg the PS3 helps more than the 360 ur console sux."

Let me see, Sony do something right (F@H) and Microsoft want to copy them, yet I don't see the fanboys shouting that Microsoft are copying them. If Microsoft did it first, and then Sony copied them, then we know that Microsoft fanboys would be shouting "Copy cat".

To be honest, sony should let them join F@H, it will just show the raw power of the PS3 compared to the XBOX360, especially when PS3 is still on top even with X360 joining in.

Oh come on, Sony in general has been getting nothing but flames. Not even F@H is really appreciated. EVERYONE knows that Microsoft is trying to get its hands on the program too just to have that factor on their side...do you honestly think they honestly care for the program at all? If they did, would they have been mentioning it AFTER the PlayStation 3 had it?? No, they would've mentioned it BEFORE-hand AND would've been taking the necessary steps in order to successfully run the program.

People, please stop looking at Sony as a hypocritical company, and look at the whole damn picture for christ's sake.

BTW: I don't believe Stanford ever mention that they "desperately" needed all the help they could get.

FACE IT PEOPLE, the only reason Microsoft wants to do this is to say, "WE CAN CURE DISEASE TOO! WE CAN DO IT BETTER THAN SONY!"

They don't give a damn about the actual motives, they just want it for bragging rights, and because their install base is bigger, they'll get more work done.

Here's the thing though. The 360 is a piece of crap. The motherboard, graphics card, and processor actually BEND and warp under NORMAL GAMEPLAY.

The 360 would literally die if it was at 100% CPU stress for 24 hours plus.

I thought there was a article saying that Microsoft wanted in Folding Home but the stress on the 360 would only cause widespread ring of deaths so they had to give up on the idea

I think any help in folding is quite welcome, so there's no need to turn this into a PS3 vs Xbox debacle.

I do think Microsoft is spurred to action by the attention the PS3 is getting from folding@home, but we should set the record straight on a few things as far as the technical assumptions being made.

Firstly the Xbox 360's CPU is definitely weaker than the Cell, which is a multi-core parallel CPU. However, as of 2 years ago folding has been quite successfully and efficiently done using ATI GPUs. The X360's GPU is actually ATI's "Xenos" GPU, which is actually the precursor to the R600 and based on the concept of stream processors (multiple programmable/multi-purpose processors instead of discrete pixel processors and vertex shaders). Now if a stream processor based GPU sounds an awfully lot like a powerful general purpose multi-core CPU its because well, both of them can do parallel processing of tasks, which happens to be excellent for something complex like physics and protein folding! If I recall correctly, an X1950XTX, which doesn't even use stream processors and instead using vertex and pixel shaders is in the order of 12-60x faster than a Pentium 4 for folding. I would guess the Xenos is not too much worse than that. So while the X360 might not be as well equipped for folding (and even this is speculative) it will definitely not be too shoddy at it if the F@H app was optimised to use its CPU and GPU accordingly. The Xbox 360 could technically use both its CPU (as weak as it is) and its GPU for folding. Just some food for thought for anyone assuming the X360 has nothing in it that can help in folding .

I think in general whether X360/Xenos/CPU is going to be better or worse than the PS3/Cell for folding, its contribution should not be insignificant in an endeavour where "the more the merrier" really is true.

Anyway the whole Red Ring of Death issue might make this whole point moot, but there's something else too. F@H on the computer lets you designate the amount of CPU usage allowed to go towards the work units. I'm sure MS could simply control the CPU/GPU usage enough so that heat is less of an issue, although at that point who knows if the electicity use by the X360 is going to be worth the contribution to the project (Global Warming vs Disease Research!)

Btw Seeker X: I was in several presentations (live in person speeches and telephone conferences) where Stanford researchers basically said the equivalent of "we need all the help we can get". . The human genome is massive and folding is very time consuming - there's a LOT of protein folding to be done. When you're talking about trying to find the cure to life threatening and debilitating diseases you really ARE desperate for all the help you can get. Also, finding proteins related to disease is really only the first step in a long and arduous research process. Everyone thinks that folding itself will cure diseases, and it won't. It's a PART of a huge process. If more people folding can cut this process down by even a few years, that can make the difference between life and death, full mobility and being crippled, and a lot of other SERIOUS issues for millions of people.

Exactly. Couldn't have said it any better. Why does it really matter which system could fold better? Does it not really matter that more & more systems and companies are cooperating and joining in for the research possibilities alone?

Who cares which one is more powerful? I have an old pc at home that I use simply for folding. Does it matter that it's not Core 2 Duo? Of course not. It's performing folding operations. That's all that really matters.

Take the fanboy wars elsewhere.

I stand corrected on Stanford's need for help, but didn't Tretton mention something about Stanford doubting the 360's support in the project? Besides, my main point was to point out that Microsoft was just as competitive about F@H as Sony was. There was no need to single Sony out if they're both fighting for the same thing.

finalblade98 I've had more in-depth & meaningful discussions with my dog after he's knocked over a bottle of cheap bourbon and licked it up than I could ever dream of having with you. I've read post after post of yours today and I've actually giggled to myself a couple of times over your ridiculous fanboy rants and your idiotic responses.

I have hardly been owned by "Standford", as you so eloquently put it. Does 98 have any underlying corrolation to your birth year?

Oh and keep this statement by Redemption in mind when you begin to respond to this.

"As far as accepting Xbox 360's contribution to folding, if you were truly yourself interested in the spirit of what F@H represents you would certainly not care what systems were participating."

Never did I think that this article would create such comments. Folding@Home for me is just another feature that the PS3 has and if Microsoft wants it then it doesn't really matter. This opens up a whole new world of contributors, which will quicken the process of research and curing diseases.

I would like to ask this simple question. What's the PS3 once you've caught a disease? Heck what's money once you've caught a disease? So opening the doors to Microsoft is a plus to us humans, this will terminate new diseases from rising and simultaneously find cures for current diseases.

Hmm.. can I clarify that a car is not necessarily more efficient than a bicycle (this in response to finalblade's car vs bike analogy)? If you drive your car out to a grocery store which is a 10 minute bike ride away, the only thing more efficient about the car is the time you save. Everything else is quite the opposite. Cars are more practical, other transportation modes are more efficient. Sorry, OT but an important distinction to make, and yes, I'm guilty of said 10 minute grocery drives -_-

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Also i dont think xbox has the means of handling this type of project. They already have so many problems right now. They should focus on that then this.

Enlighten us as to the problems that Microsoft is facing right now. I'm truly interested in hearing this response.

Albeit I'm sure I'll have to get my 5 year old nephew to read and interpret it for me...but truly interested nonetheless.

This is insane. It's so not about dominating the market which is F@H. The whole purpose of F@H is to help in research for things such as cures. Shame on you Sony. btw, I'm drowning in the fanboyism that's being emitted from the comments, someone open a window(s Vista); phew