British and American militaries snap up PlayStations

Posted on 30 Nov 2009 at 15:28

Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games consoles are sure to be popular gifts this Christmas, but the British and American militaries have been purchasing PlayStations for more serious purposes.

The American Department of Defense's High Performance Computing Modernization Program plans to purchase 2,200 PS3s. According to a procurement document originally posted on a US federal government website, now taken down but cached by Google, Linux will be installed on the consoles and they will be networked together over gigabit Ethernet with 336 existing PS3s. The document justifies the purchase by showing how much cheaper it would be to conduct supercomputing experiments using the networked PlayStations instead of similar Cell processor-equipped supercomputers from other manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy has begun issuing 230 PlayStation Portable consoles to sailors in an effort to encourage them to study while at sea, according to a report in The Times. The first sailors to receive PSPs will be marine warfare engineering technicians, who are responsible for maintaining the Navy's radar, sonar and communications systems. The consoles will come equipped with sturdy materials to help the technicians pass their training courses.

Author: Alan Lu

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