Xbox, a tool to accelerate research

2009/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Softwarea

Researchers at the University of Warwick have used the graphics processing unit of the Xbox 360 consola (GPU) to process research data.

To date computer networks were commonly used to perform such operations, but with this unit they have greatly accelerated the process.

In fact, it allows you to process Xbox drives in parallel, as efficiently as the traditional system, but at a much lower cost. At the University of Warwick they have decided to take advantage of this capacity in their research and thus have managed, for example, to develop a model that explains how the electrical signal moves around damaged heart cells.

It's not the first time consoles and real life intersect: The world's fastest Roadrunner computer uses the same processing technology as PlayStation 3.